Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

DanielMoth — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:29:31 GMT

Glad you found a new home Andrew.

Thought I'd add that the issue you describe is specific to Beta 1 of VS2008 (not even Beta 2), so this goes waaay back... (to July looking at my respective blog post ;-)

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

William Stacey — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:31:15 GMT

Here is a *.sln fix. A 1-liner in PowerShell:

dir . -r *.sln | %{$t=cat $_.fullname;$t -replace "Codename Orcas","2008" > $_}

Naturally, should always do a backup before such global replacements:

dir . -r *.sln | %{copy $_ ($_.fullname + ".bak")}

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

George P. — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:22:04 GMT

It may also fail to start if VS is set to run in admin mode.

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

shachar — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:21:59 GMT

Hi All,

Can you help me in adding files dir to sln ?

i wonder if there is a script or other possability when adding dir or files to a working project if it can be add automaticlly and not manually when opening the sln file

10x

Shachar

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

Whitney — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:40:01 GMT

Also, it appears the solution must be UTF8 encoded.

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

Dale — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:36:27 GMT

This issue is not just for versions like Orcas. I have VS2008 solutions with the first lines exactly as your post says and I can successfully open and save them using File->Open but double-clicking in Vista does not open VS2008. Since double-clicking is a standard Windows functionality I find it stunning that the Windows group did not overrule the VS2008 group's decision to break from the usability standard. Programatic security elevation is a standard and supported feature in Vista so all of this security stuff you're quoting is just hype. This is simply a bad decision but, according to this Connect issue, this is by design.

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=263221

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

Paolo Marani — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:46:06 GMT

Whitney, you saved my day !!!

I have manually edited my solution .sln file using a text editor, and since that time the double-click on this solution only was not opening visual studio anymore.

The culprit was the encoding of the .sln file. If you save back to disk ensuring it's coded in UFT-8 it is magically fixed!

Thank you so much.

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

Marcel Popescu — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:16:44 GMT

Thank you Whitney... I was generating .sln files and mine, though identical in content to others, would not open on double-click; turned out to be a matter of encoding - as soon as I re-saved them in Notepad with UTF-8, it worked.

re: Why double-clicking on an .SLN file doesn't always launch Visual Studio

Ben de Vaal — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:16:20 GMT

Great post, many thanks! Was struggling with this problem all morning.