Quickly locate or change the custom project or Item templates locations in Visual Studio 2017

Quickly locate or change the custom project or Item templates locations in Visual Studio 2017

In Visual Studio, all the custom template files must be placed in a specific location so that Visual Studio recognizes, and the templates can appear in the New Project Dialog Window and Add New Item Dialog Window. By default, Visual Studio search for two different locations for project and item templates respectively. If you placed a compressed file (included .vstemplate file ) exists in these locations, the template will appear in the New Project or Add New Item dialog window based on the defined type of the templates.

By default, user templates are in:

  • %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Templates\ProjectTemplates
  • %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Templates\ItemTemplates

For an instance, the following directory contains user item templates for Visual C#:

C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Templates\ItemTemplates\Visual C#\

You can even quickly navigate or update these locations. You can set the location for user templates directly from Visual Studio as well. From main menu, navigate to Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > Locations.

Project and Item Template Location in Visual Studio 2017

Project and Item Template Location in Visual Studio 2017You will have the option for following:
• Projects location:
• User project templates location:
• User item templates location

Here you can also update the default project location as well.

If you are using Visual Studio 2015 – You will find this option directly under Project and Solution option.

Hope this helps.

Abhijit Jana

Abhijit runs the Daily .NET Tips. He started this site with a vision to have a single knowledge base of .NET tips and tricks and share post that can quickly help any developers . He is a Former Microsoft ASP.NET MVP, CodeProject MVP, Mentor, Speaker, Author, Technology Evangelist and presently working as a .NET Consultant. He blogs at http://abhijitjana.net , you can follow him @AbhijitJana . He is the author of book Kinect for Windows SDK Programming Guide.

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