Proper way to rename solution (and directories) in Visual Studio

To rename a solution:

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, select Rename, and enter a new name.

2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties. On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".

3. In the main cs file (or any other code files), rename the namespace declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example: namespace WindowsFormsApplication1

4. Change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs.

   [assembly: AssemblyTitle("New Name Here")]
   [assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
   [assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
   [assembly: AssemblyCompany("")]
   [assembly: AssemblyProduct("New Name Here")]
   [assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright ©  2013")]
   [assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
   [assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
   

5. Delete bin and obj directories physically.

6. Rename the project physical folder directory.

7. Open the SLN file (within notepad or any editor) and change the path to the project.

8. Clean and Rebuild the project.

The Rename operations in Visual Studio only change the filename, i.e. *.prj for a project, and *.sln for a solution. You will need to rename folders separately using the filesystem, and you will need to remove and re-add the projects since they will have new folder names. However, note that the solution and project files are respectively text and xml files. You could write your own program that parses them and renames both the folder names, filenames, and fixes the project/solution files internally.

2021 Update:

renameproject made this effortless. A simple CLI tool to use, it even creates a git commit on success.

https://github.com/ModernRonin/ProjectRenamer

Old answer:

I've used the Visual Studio extension "Full Rename Project" to successfully rename projects in an ASP.NET Core 2 solution.

I used ReSharper then to adjust the namespace (right click on project, refactor, adjust namespaces...)

https://github.com/kuanysh-nabiyev/RenameProjectVsExtension

I tried the Visual Studio Project Renamer, but, it threw exceptions in the few cases where I tried it.

I have had good success with CopyWiz.

I am in no way affiliated with them, and I have not yet paid for it, but I may have to soon, as it is the only tool that seems to work for both my C# and C++ projects. I do hope they make a little money, and continue to improve it, though.

If you have problems with loading Shared projects, like Xamarin, remember to change reference to shared libs in csproj files. I developed a CocosSharp game and Droid/iOS/WP81 projects didn't want to load. I had to change the line below in every csproj file (Driod/iOS/WP81) which referenced Shared lib. That was caused because of folder names change, so replace YOUR_PREVIOUS_NAMESPACE with your new names of folders.

<Import Project="..\YOUR_PREVIOUS_NAMESPACE.Shared\EmptyProject.Shared.projitems" Label="Shared" />

Also, I noticed that for .Driod projects, assembly name in project properties cannot be changed using Visual Studio (I use 2015). I had to change assembly name manually in the .Droid.csproj file.

<AssemblyName>YourNameSpace</AssemblyName>

Then I loaded solution and in project properties view new name appeared. After rebuilding dll with that name was generated.

I have followed https://gist.github.com/n3dst4/b932117f3453cc6c56be link and I was able to renamed my entire solution successfully.

If, after following the suggested solution, you have managed to have a new solution renamed (suppose from www.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com), but still have the old Web Site project name because you have an old "ASP.Net Web Site", then follow this additional steps (suppose from project1 to project2).

• install and old Visual Studio 2017
• open the project with it, right click on the project -> add -> new project.
• Select "Installed -> Visual C# -> Web -> Previous Versions -> ASP.NET Empty Web Site" and name it "www.newsite.com"
• Move all the files and folders from Visual Studio 2017, from oldsite to newsite until the oldsite remains empty.
• Right click on "www.oldsite.com" and remove it.

You can now save everything now and open it back again with Visual Studio 2022. All this is needed only because VS2019/VS2020 do not support "old" ASP.Net Web Site creation, but only editing.