title: Copying a project in Visual Studio 2010
body: <p>Is there an <strong>easy</strong> way to copy a project in <strong>Visual Studio 2010</strong>?</p>
  
  <p>Copying a folder with project to a different path and opening it results in the following error.</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33457177/Screenshots/Microsoft%20Visual%20C%2B%2B%202010%20Express_2011-12-04_21-40-45.png" alt="Error"></p>
  
  <p>I'm interested only in solutions that <strong>would not involve</strong> more than <strong>1 simple action</strong>. I'm creating a simple console project that I'm going to be copying hudreds of times, and not really a fan of going into settings and repeating multiple steps every time such a simple things needs to be done.</p>
  
  <p>I'm using <strong>Visual C++ Express 2010</strong>. Note the project structure below. I created it as an <em>Empty Project</em> and added 1 single file <em>main.cpp</em> to it.</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33457177/Screenshots/void_template%20-%20Microsoft%20Visual%20C%2B%2B%202010%20Express_2011-12-04_21-48-41.png" alt="Project structure"></p>
  
  <p>The project was created using the <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33457177/Screenshots/New%20Project_2011-12-04_22-02-23.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>settings</strong></a>.</p>
  
  <p>The project in explorer looks like <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33457177/Screenshots/void_template_2011-12-04_22-15-51.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>this</strong></a>.</p>
  
  <p>There is a <strong>Copy Project</strong> function, but this means more than 1 manual action:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>openning the old project;</li>
  <li>pressing Copy on the menu;</li>
  <li>closing the old Project;</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Copying a parent folder of a solution would work, but that creates an unnecessary folder that I'd have to navigate in each copied project every time I need to access the copied project. I would like to avoid any unnecessary "pass-through" folders.</p>
  
  <p>Note that create directory for solution was unchecked when the project was created, see the link above. If this was checked it would result in 2 unnecessary pass-through folders. There is a <strong>solution folder</strong>, <strong>folder where solution is created</strong> and a <strong>project folder</strong>. By unchecking the checkbox you get rid of project folder and project files are created in the solution directory, that still leaves the other 2 - I would like to have one for the reasons above.</p>