Visual Studio 2010 cannot open a 2010 solution that Visual Studio 2012 modified

Question

Basically, I had a project that was written with Visual Studio 2010 Express in C#, I then tried out using Visual Studio 2012 Express with that file, and now VS2010 says:

"The selected file is a solution file, but was created by a newer version of this application and cannot be opened."

Now when I had looked up about this, Microsoft said that you can still use 2010 if you do not use anything that was VS2012 specific. Well, I had tried out the built in Testing that is in the VS2012, and that was the only thing that was VS2012 specific, but deleting that from my project (the Testing project), still left it saying that it was created by a newer version.

So, how do you make a VS2010 solution that VS2012 modified work with VS2010 again?

Solution 1

SP1 for VS 2010 is required to open VS 2012 modified solutions.

Solution 2

Try this out:

http://vsprojectconverter.codeplex.com/

Personally I've never used it but I have it marked as a tool to use if I run into issues. Hope it helps!

Comments

[aquinas]

Do you have SP1 for VS 2010 Express? That's required to open VS 2012 modified solutions.

[Xantham]

No I did not. This also solved my problem. Actually, when I told it to check for updates, it just told me to start "Windows Update" but in WU I found no mention of the SP (me installing it or whatnot). I had to search MS's website to find the link to the Service Pack. I actually initially installed VS on this computer from their website about a year after the release of the service pack, so I am a bit perplexed why they did not update their download of VS2010 C# Express on their website or make a clear mention of the SP1.

[Xantham]

Yeah, I know that is always an option, but I wanted to know if there was a more elegant solution before I had to do that.

[Xantham]

This seems to work for me. Thank you for the answer. I do find it odd that MS clearly says that you can use 2010 and 2012 on the same project, yet a 2010 created solution seemed to prove them incorrect.

[Sebastian]

@Xantham, the say 2010sp1 and 2012 :)