Compile single C++ file in Visual Studio 2010

Question

I want to compile a single file in c++ using Visual Studio 2010. I created a new file, not a project, and wrote some "hello world" code and I want to compile it and run it. How to do so? I've searched here and in Google, I got things like F7 or F5 nothing worked.

Solution 1

You can follow this guide from MSDN to compile standalone C++ files without an IDE.

Solution 2

In Visual Studio 6.0, you could load up a single CPP file, with a main(), and compile it. Can't remember if this was taken away in Visual Studio 2008 or 2010, but it's gone.

It used to be easy to fire up a new instance, paste in some test code an just run it. Now it takes creating or using a dummy project, as others above have noted.

Not hard, just less handy than before.