Visual Studio: Add existing folder(s) to project

Is there a way to add existing Folders to a Visual Studio Project so that I do not have to do this file by file?

Edit

To make it clear: I want to add references not copies.

If the folder and its contents have already been created and it physically exists under the Project, you can click the Show All Files icon (at the top of the Solution Explorer windows) and then when the folder shows as a dotted icon, right-click it and choose Include In Project and the folder and all its contents are added.

VS 2019

Click on the 'Show All Files' icon at the top of Solution Explorer window.

Then the folders/files of the selected project will be displayed as dotted icons. You can right click any of them and select include in project to include them in the project.

For solution folders, click the 'Show All Files' icon then first exclude the desired folders/files and then include them.

You could open Add Existing Item dialog, select a bunch of files, click on Add's button drop-down menu and choose Add as a link. It will add files as references and won't copy them.

You can drag and drop the entire folder. If all files don't show you can repeat the drag'n'drop procedure for subfolders.

This answer applies to [tag:visual-studio-2012] and [tag:visual-studio-2013], the most up to date versions at the time the question was asked and this answer was given. More recent versions have improved their handling and have other answers here. For someone using the old versions, this answer still applies.

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Answer:

I don't think there is, but if you have all the files in one folder, you can add multiple files in one go. Just mark them all in the add file dialog.

1. right click the project, and choose "New Solution Explorer view", a window pops up.
2. and then form the toolbar of the new window ("solution explore window"), you click the "Show All Files" icon.
3. then include the folders of interest into your project...

@Mark s answer is good, but if there are hundreds or thousands of files it will be quite cumbersome to add all of them. Plus, it does not provision for new files.

There is another method using the .csproj file. I have used this to add content that is part of a submodule that does not have a .csproj file of its own.

Note that I have used the <Content /> tag, as I did not need any of the linked content during compilation.

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Include="..\my\submodule\directory\**" Link="Directory\In\Main\Project\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)" />
</ItemGroup>

If you're working in VS 2019 Community Edition, I find that you can:

1. Open the parent folder of whatever folder you're trying to add in windows explorer
2. Right-click and copy that folder
3. Go to the solution explorer in visual studio
4. Right-click then paste the folder wherever you want to in the solution tree

In Visual Studio 2019 I could not drag and drop from file explorer or 'Show All Files' and then add them. Instead, while in File Explorer, right click and choose copy, then click on the location within Visual Studio 2019 and right click and choose paste. All of the files in the folder and subfolders will be added.

kburnik's answer worked well for my use-case, but for anyone who needs a scriptable way to bring a lot of folder hierarchy back, you can modify the .*proj file to re-include the folders and files:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ...>
  ...
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="Path\To\File1.ext" />
    <Compile Include="Path\To\File2.ext" />
    ...
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Folder Include="Only\Empty\Folders\Need\To\Be\Listed\Here" />
    ...
  </ItemGroup>

Just make sure that before you do this, you save the .*proj file if it's still open in Visual Studio.

If the folder and its contents have already been created and it physically exists under the Project then click on view over the project then you can see all folders and files and you just need to copy files and click on solution in the same folder view and paste all in there

It has been a while since this was originally posted, but here is an alternative answer for a solution folder that is NOT inside of a project. If you only care to be able to look at the physical files from inside visual studio and do not necessarily require to see them in the solution explorer default view, then click on the switch view button and choose the folder view and any physical directory/directories that are under your solution root folder will appear here even if they do not appear in the solution explorer default view.

If however, you want to add a folder tree that isn't too large as a virtual solution directory/directories to match your existing tree structure, do that and and then "add the existing" physical files to the virtual directory/directories. If the physical directory exists in your solution directory it will not copy the files - it will link directly to the physical files but they will appear as part of the solution virtual directories.

Check whether that folder is inside project folder or not, if yes:

1. click Show All files in solution explorer.

2. now you can see folder name in solution explorer. right click the folder -> Include In Project.

3. If the folder out of project please copy it into the project directory in the place where we want it.

Possibly some of you weren't born when this question was first asked!

If you have external directories, you can add them to a solution as a "website". This gives you all the benefits of being able to search through the solution and easily add new files to the website. It doesn't have to contain html, it can be a set of word documents, for example. So for example, I've got a single solution that contains every sql and oracle query I've ever worked on or harvested from a co-worker. Why? Because it's difficult to keep up with similar sounding field and table names across different databases when you're trying to write a new query.

This also works with TFS.

You can use the following extension to add a solution folder, which is going to have the same name and the same content as the existing one without it being moved in the file system at all.

Folder To Solution Folder

And here's the link for more information:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=CeciliaWiren-CeciliaSHARP.FolderToSolutionFolder