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As I compare many C# example projects to my VB.NET projects, I see that the References folder shows in the Solution Explorer without having to select "Show All Files". Is it possible to have this for a VB.NET project as well? I find that it would be very helpful to have this folder displayed without having to see all the other hidden files as well.

I'm using VS2010 Professional.

This adds to my list of reasons why I should have learned C# first...

Daniel Widdis
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Jeff
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4 Answers4

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I guess I will have to definitively crush your dream. Sorry. It has been a decision by Microsoft to remove this from the default view to reduce the 'clutter'. However, your 'Show All Files' setting will persist when you save your project. So if you show all files once and then save, then it will always be on.

You can also see your References in the Project designer, which you can always keep open in a tab.

Edwin de Koning
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    Hmph. I wonder why Microsoft thought it was _clutter_ for VB projects and not for C# projects... Oh, well. Thanks for the answer - I'd +1 if I had enough rep. – Jeff Jun 07 '11 at 19:57
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    References is not clutter to me at all! It's just one IMPORTANT node. Kudos for the answer.. and the question! – Lzh Dec 23 '13 at 12:48
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As of Visual Studio 2015, this behavior has been changed to show the References folder without selecting Show All Files.

From MSDN:

What’s new is the References node. This used to be hidden and you had to click Show All Files to see it—but that also showed lots of irrelevant files.

This previous behavior might have made sense 10 years ago when you’d start with a Windows Forms project and it would generally have the right set of references. But it’s a reality of modern development nowadays that the References node is used frequently—especially to manage NuGet references. It’s a small but handy convenience to be able to find it easily in Solution Explorer.

Community
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davidmdem
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0

I add a separate folder called Dependencies, add my dll's to it and check them in as described here. That way my dll's are always visible in the Solution explorer without having to turn on Show All Files.

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majjam
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Select 'Show All Files option' in the solution explorer.

Raj Chauhan
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