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What is the .NET Project Designer?

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The Project Designer in Visual Studio is a dialog box that you can use to specify applications settings and properties for a .NET or .NET Framework project. The Project Designer includes several different project properties tabs or pages to interact with. What you see depends on your .NET project type, platform, and programming language. For detailed information on properties in the .NET C# Project Designer, see .NET Project Designer (C#). For detailed information on the .NET Framework Project Designer, see Project properties in the .NET Framework Project Designer.

The Project Designer in Visual Studio is a dialog box that you can use to specify applications settings and properties for a .NET or .NET Framework project. The Project Designer includes several different project properties tabs or pages to interact with. What you see depends on your .NET project type, platform, and programming language.

The Project Designer appears after you select a project node in Solution Explorer and then use the right-click context menu to select Properties.

Important

The project properties that you can access by using the .NET Project Designer differ from the properties you can access by using the Properties window in Solution Explorer.

The following screenshot shows an example of the .NET project properties for a C# console project in the Project Designer.

Screenshot of the .NET Project Designer in Visual Studio 2022 with .NET 8.0 as the target framework.

The following screenshot shows an example of the .NET project properties for a Visual Basic console project in the Project Designer. Notice that .NET Framework 4.7.2 appears as the target framework.

Screenshot of the .NET Project Designer in Visual Studio 2022 with .NET Framework 4.7.2 as the target framework.

The following Visual Studio 2019 screenshot shows an example of the .NET project properties for a C# console project in the Project Designer. Notice that .NET 5.0 appears as the target framework.

Screenshot of the Project Designer in Visual Studio 2019 with .NET as the target framework.

The following Visual Studio 2019 screenshot shows an example of the .NET project properties for a Visual Basic console project in the Project Designer. Notice that .NET Framework 4.7.2 appears as the target framework.

Screenshot of the Project Designer in Visual Studio 2019 with .NET Framework as the target framework.

Project properties in the .NET Framework Project Designer

For .NET Framework projects, use links in the following table to get information about properties.

Property Language/platform Description
Application C#, F#, Visual Basic, UWP, WPF Specify application settings and properties for a project.
Build C#, F#, WPF Specify build configuration properties for a project.
Build Events C#, Visual Basic, WPF Specify build configuration instructions.
Code Analysis C#, F#, Visual Basic, WPF Configure the code analysis tool.
Compile Visual Basic Specify compilation properties
My Extensions Visual Basic Manage My Namespace extensions.
Package C#, F#, Visual Basic Generate a NuGet package on build.
Publish Visual Basic, WPF Configure properties for ClickOnce.
References Visual Basic Manage the references used by a project.
Reference Paths WPF Manage reference paths for a project.
Resources C#, F#, Visual Basic, WPF Access the RESX file from Solution Explorer for a C# project, create a default resources file for a Visual Basic project, or add resources to a WPF project.
Services Visual Basic, WPF, Windows Forms Enable client application services.
Settings C#, F#, Visual Basic, WPF Specify a project's application settings.
Signing Visual Basic, WPF Sign application and deployment manifests, and sign the assembly. (For a Visual Basic project, the ClickOnce manifest signing for .NET projects is now under Build > Publish.)
Security Visual Basic, WPF Configure code access security settings for applications that are deployed by using ClickOnce deployment.

Project properties in the .NET Project Designer

Use links in the following table to get information about properties.

Title Description
Application Page, Project Designer (Visual Basic) Specify application settings and properties for a Visual Basic project.
Application Page, Project Designer (C#) Specify application settings and properties for a Visual C# project.
Build Events Page, Project Designer (C#) Specify build configuration instructions.
Build Page, Project Designer (C#) Specify build configuration properties for a Visual C# project.
Compile Page, Project Designer (Visual Basic) Specify compilation properties for Visual Basic projects.
Debug Page, Project Designer Specify debugging properties for a project.
Code Analysis, Project Designer Configure the code analysis tool.
Publish Page, Project Designer Configure properties for ClickOnce.
References Page, Project Designer (Visual Basic) Manage references used by a project.
Security Page, Project Designer Configure code access security settings for applications that are deployed by using ClickOnce deployment.
Signing Page, Project Designer Sign application and deployment manifests, and sign the assembly.

See also