title: Why does my Visual C++ .exe project build create .lib and .exp files?
body: <p>I have a solution consisting of 3 projects. One is a static library, and two are console-based .exe files that depend on and link against this library. Their settings seem to be identical. I build one of them:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>1>------ Build started: Project: masksample, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------<br>
    1>Compiling...<br>
    1>stdafx.cpp<br>
    1>Compiling...<br>
    1>masksample.cpp<br>
    1>Compiling manifest to resources...<br>
    1>Linking...<br>
    1>LINK : C:\Users\DarekSz\Praca\cci\Debug\masksample.exe not found or not built by the last incremental link; performing full link<br>
    1>Embedding manifest...<br>
    1>masksample - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)<br>
    ========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 1 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Then I go on to building the other:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>1>------ Build started: Project: calibsample, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------<br>
    1>Compiling...<br>
    1>stdafx.cpp<br>
    1>Compiling...<br>
    1>calibsample.cpp<br>
    1>Compiling manifest to resources...<br>
    1>Linking...<br>
    1>LINK : C:\Users\DarekSz\Praca\cci\Debug\calibsample.exe not found or not built by the last incremental link; performing full link<br>
    1>   Creating library C:\Users\DarekSz\Praca\cci\Debug\calibsample.lib and object C:\Users\DarekSz\Praca\cci\Debug\calibsample.exp<br>
    1>Embedding manifest...<br>
    1>calibsample - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)<br>
    ========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 1 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Why does the linker create the .lib and .exp files this time? Is there some option to turn this on and off that I activated without knowing about it?</p>