Following steps highlight how a Visual Studio 2005 Web application project can be migrated to Visual Studio 2008.

  1. Take backup of the original project
  2. Open Visual Studio 2008
  3. Click File -> Open Project and browse to the folder to open the project
  4. You will receive the following conversion wizard to help you convert the solution or project to the current version. Click Next.

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  5. Select Yes on this screen if you want the wizard to help you to take the backup, otherwise select No and Click Next.

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  6. Be sure to read the summary on this screen & click finish

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  7. As soon as you click finish, you will see an upgrade prompt. Click yes if you want to upgrade to the latest framework otherwise Click No. If you select yes to upgrade, the project file as well as web.config file is updated for the latest framework. It's recommended to select the checkbox to do the same for all webs in this solution.

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  8. The conversion wizard would show you the status, select Show the log to see the log and click close.

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For projects using Ajax you might need to install ASP.NET Ajax Extensions 1.0 in VS 2008 if you said no to upgrade. Please see Tip #62 to learn how to install it.

Hope this helps,

Deepak Verma
SDET | Visual Web Developer