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If I have Visual Studio 2008 and .NET framework 4.0, can I run a project or application built using Visual Studio 2010?

Peter Mortensen
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Pritesh
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2 Answers2

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It's not possible, because the Visual Studio 2008 does not understand the target framework version for version 4.0. Additionally the format of the project files are slightly different between the Visual Studio versions. You have to stick either with Visual Studio, or give SharpDevelop or MonoDevelop a try.

Peter Mortensen
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jb_
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    I don't know about one, but if you just open the project file (csproj) instead of the solution file, the VS2008 can open it. Then you just have to adjust the target framework in the project properties. All 4.0 dlls (system/system.data/and so on) will be downgraded automatically to lower version (e. g. 3.5) assemblies if I remember correctly. Assemblies that does not have a 2.0/3.0/3.5 counterpart, will be marked as unavailable in the references (e. g. Microsoft.CSharp). – jb_ Dec 02 '10 at 07:00
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You can run a built exe that was specifically built for 4.0, but to open the project, you need the same or newer version of Visual Studio. I don't know of any tools that will downgrade a project.

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