The Moth

With Visual studio 2005 the contents structure of Solution Explorer has changed. Even with VS2003 I always had the "Project->Show All Files" option turned on but with VS2005 it is essential (by default, they hide more than what they show!).

The main change is that under each project there is a folder (just above "References"). Amongst other things it contains the AssemblyInfo file (that previously was with all the other files). If you open the project properties and go to the "Application" tab you'll find a button called "Assembly Information" that brings up a dialog showing the AssemblyInfo values. If for whatever reason you’d prefer the AssemblyInfo file to live with the other code files, then simply drag it out; the project properties will still find it :-)

Under the same folder you'll find a Resources.resx file (and its dependent Resources.Designer). Again, you can manipulate this via the project properties and specifically the "Resources" tab. It is these files that enable My.Resources (and the Resources class in C#) wrapping the System.Resources.ResourceManager. If for whatever reason you’d rather not have these files, then right click on them and delete them (you can always regenerate them via the project properties “Resources” tab).

All of the above is applicable to projects targeting PC or devices and is true for both VB and C#. Of course, keeping the name of the folder the same for both languages would be sacrilege so in VB it is called "My Project" and in C# it is called "Properties".

Furthermore, only for desktop projects (you didn't think we'd have it all in the Compact Framework did you?), the folder also contains Settings.settings (and its dependent Settings.Designer) files. As you guessed, these enable the editing of settings in the project properties based on an auto-generated Settings (My.Settings in VB) class that inherits from System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase). If for whatever reason you’d rather not have these files, then right click on them and delete them (you can always regenerate them via the project properties “Settings” tab).

Finally, only for VB desktop projects, the "My Project" directory contains the files: Application.myapp, Application.Designer.vb and ApplicationEvents.vb. These are responsible for the new startup model and application level events, which we looked at in the Beta 1 timeframe (it has changed slightly but the majority is identical and the changes are mostly cosmetic e.g. the option is now called "Enable Application Framework" rather than "Startup with custom Sub Main"). If you don’t want the ApplicationEvents.vb file, then simply delete it (you can always regenerate it via the button “View Application Events” under the Project->Properties Application tab). Whatever you do, *do not* delete the other two vb files; with Beta 2 at least, nasty things can happen (things that force you to use Task Manager -> End Task)! Having just said that, those two files are also present in Class Library projects even though the relevant project properties areas are disabled (!). In the class library case it seems safe to delete them.