Visual studio has always annoyed me because (to my knowledge) you cannot create a solution first and then add new/existing projects to it. The only way I know how to create a solution is to create a project and specify the solution name for it.
So, is there any way to start with a blank solution (.sln) in visual studio (any version)?
For Visual Studio 2019 the steps are described in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/get-started/tutorial-projects-solutions?view=vs-2019#create-a-solution
Open Visual Studio.
On the start window, choose to Create a new project.
On the Create a new project page, enter blank solution into the search box, select the Blank Solution template, and then choose Next.
Note: You need to make sure you open a brand new project, right-clicking and create new project will not generate the option to create a blank solution.
In my case, with Visual studio 2022 the empty project template was missing entirely:
However, dotnet comes to the rescue with this handy command:
dotnet new sln
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-new
Related SO: How to create Solution file with dotnet core CLI
I fixed the missing "blank solution" problem in VS 2022 with Visual Studio Installer. My installer is not in english, so labels might be a little bit different. Sorry for my french english ;-)
In "Installation details", "Web dev with ASP.Net", "Optional", 8th checkbox "Items and projects templates for .Net Framework" (I can't imagine how this is related to the blank solution template... But i worked for me)
For Visual Studio 2019 and 2022, I found this solution to work.
Warning!
- You will have to re-signIn and Launch Visual Studio several times if you see anything abnormal (like i did).
- And Update Visual Studio Installer to re-download .Net core and other version frameworks
Source of Solution :Visual Studio Dev Comminity
Launch Command line and browse to devenv.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
launch executable with following argument: /resetuserdata
or copy paste full command here.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe /resetuserdata