Opening Visual Studio 2008 Express Projects in Visual Studio 2008

1) Single projects (vbproj)

Here are no problems - open it in Visual Basic 2008 Express and then in Visual Studio 2005 (e. g. Standard Edition ) . Everything works.

2) Complete Visual Studio Solutions

If you open a Visual Studio 2005 Solution in Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition a conversion wizard is shown.

Im most cases only the solution file will be changed.

Here is an example of a converted file:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Basic Express 2008
Project("{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}") = "Souvergin - RSS Reader", "Souvergin - RSS Reader\Souvergin - RSS Reader.vbproj", "{9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}"
EndProject
Global
    GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
        Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU
        Release|Any CPU = Release|Any CPU
    EndGlobalSection
    GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
    EndGlobalSection
    GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution
        HideSolutionNode = FALSE
    EndGlobalSection
EndGlobal

This file can not be opened by Visual Studio 2005. But if you have also one of the full versions of Visual Studio like standard or professional you might want to work with them instead of an express edition.

So what is to change?

Only the first two lines:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
# Visual Studio 2005

Save your edited file and then you can work with Visual Studio 2005. Maybe in some cases it would be useful to save your backported Version as a separate file e. g. if you often switch between both IDE's.