Visual Studio - Creating a new Win32 Console Application:

This information is for Visual Studio 2005. The 2008 version may be different. Let us assume you have a directory "MyProject", containing the source code (.c, .cpp, or .h) files for your project.

• Start Microsoft Visual Studio
• Select "File → New → Project..."
• This will bring up a window "New Project".
• Under "Project Types" section, open the "Visual C++" tab and select "Win32".
• Under "Templates" section, select "Win32 Console Application".
• Under "Name", enter your solution name (e.g., "MySolution")
• Under "Location", enter the path of the directory "MyProject" (or use Browse to navigate here).
• Uncheck the box "Create a directory for solution".
• Click "OK".
• Next a window "Win32 Application Wizard" will come up.
• Click the "Application Settings" button on the left.
• Under "Application type" be sure that "Console application" is selected.
• Under "Additional options" select "Empty project".
• Click "Finish".
• This will create a directory "MySolution" (within "MyProject") with a number of files, including:
• MySolution.sln (solution file).
• MySolution.vcproj (records compiler options for the project).
• ...and a few others.
• Returning back to the Visual Studio main window, go to the "Solution Explorer" section (probably on the left) and click "MySolution".
• Select "Project → Add Existing Item..." (Alternatively, you can right-click "MySolution" in the Solution Explorer window and select it from here.
• This will bring up a window "Add Existing Item". Navigate to your "MyProject" directory and (using control-click) select all your source files.
• Click "Add". (In the Solution Explorer section, you should now see your .h files listed under "Header Files" and your .c and .cpp files listed under "Source Files".)
• To view/edit a file, double-click on it.
• If you need to set additional configuration options (e.g., directories to search for include files or .lib files).
• Select "Project → MySolution properties...".
• This will bring up a window with lots of sections for various options.
• For example:
• If you want to select directories to search for header files select "C/C++ → General" and add these in "Additional Include Directories".
• If you want to select directories to search for library files select "Linker → General" and add these in "Additional Library Directories".
• If you want to debug your program, you may want to select "Debugging" add set any command-line arguments or alter the working directory.
• To compile:
• Select "Build → Build Solution" (or hit F7).
• Note that the compiler allows for two common compiler configurations.
• "Debug" adds additional debugging information to the compiled code.
• "Release" performs additional code optimization.
• To run (in debug mode):
• Select "Debug → Start Debugging" (or hit F5).
• To clean compilation files:
• Select "Build → Clean Solution"
• (I would suggest deleting the file "MySolution.ncb", which is quite large, and is not needed to recompile your program.)