   Visual Studio C++ 2010 Express recompiles everything unlike VS5
  I just converted a Visual Studio C++ 5.0 project to Visual Studio C++ 2010 Express.The project compiles and works but under VS5 if I only changed a single file then the next compile would only compile the affected file and thus go lightning fast. Under 2010 every file is re-compiled it seems. This makes it very slow to use.I have checked the "Quick recompile" (or something to that effect) under project properties, which is supposed to make it skip unchanged files but it does not seem to work. I have not used precompiled headers under VS5, so this is not the reason. Any ideas?   
  Do you have the "whole program optimization" turned on? This will cause compilation to cross object boundaries.In debug builds (which you should use for development anyway), the option is turned off by default.Also, precompiled headers will generally make your builds faster if you use them correctly (as in actually not changing the precompiled headers between builds).   ;  Don't think I have "whole program optimization" turned on (to me it sounded like something for release mode that would slow compile time down). Will check when I get home. Thanks for your reply.Regarding precompiled headers I've never felt the need. Like I mentioned, VS5 recompiles pretty instantly when you only change few things.   ;  Just to clarify: when you say VS C++ 5.0, do you mean the product that is over 13 years old? Things were done a little differently back then - to say it mildly.   ;  Just an idea but maybe try cleaning the project. Right click on it in the solution explorer and select "clean project", then recompile.   ;  Just leting you know that this is definitely not normal. All versions of Visual studio since that version normally only recompile affected files. You have obviously done something unusual or wrong.You don't have any pre-build steps configured do you?How many source files does your project contain? And headers?   ;  There is also a possibility that the project was imported incorrectly; I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft doesn't actually test the compatibility of newer Visual Studios with projects created with such an ancient release. (Or doesn't test it extensively.) If your project doesn't include particularly huge amount of files I would suggest recreating it from scratch.   ;  Considering the age of that product (not specific to MSVC), I would create a new project from scratch (not specific to MSVC), and pull in all your source-files.   ;Quote:Original post by phresnelConsidering the age of that product (not specific to MSVC), I would create a new project from scratch (not specific to MSVC), and pull in all your source-files.Highly agreed.   ;  Also watch out for date/time stamps on files that are in the future or a system clock that's set in the past. Either of those can mess up dependency checking.   