VS Reference Manager

Find and update *.dll references with original Project references. Works with C# and VB.NET projects.

Why this extension was created?

A long time ago CPUs and hard drives were much slower. Developers used to split projects into multiple solutions and used DLL references in order for Visual Studio to work faster. Today we have CPUs with more cores and blazing fast solid state drives (SSDs). Developers can load hundreds of projects into one Visual Studio solution, which also is much better for refactoring and debugging. This extension can save time if you want to find and load original projects back into one Solution.

How it works

Extension scans specified disk locations for C# (*.csproj) and VB.NET (*.vbproj) project files. Then, it will use that data to update *.dll references with original Project references. During update process, when necessary, original Projects will be automatically added under "References" solution folder. You can find extension settings and data here: C:\ProgramData\Jocys.com\VS Reference Manager\

Before: Projects reference *.dll assemblies.

After: Projects reference original Projects, which are also included under "References" solution folder:

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Screenshots

Visual Studio 2022

New Visual Studio 2022 is 64-bit application and no longer limited to ~4gb of memory. Video of Visual Studio 2022 opening a solution with 1,600 projects and ~300k files:

Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2022/

Changes

2022-02-17 Version 1.12.0

• Fixed: Crash on some web projects.
• Updated: .NET version on demo projects.
• Updated: Shared libraries and code.

2021-11-23 Version 1.11.0

• Updated: Microsoft References
• Updated: Shared libraries display messages.

2021-10-15 Version 1.10.0

• Updated: Added support for Visual Studio 2022
• Fixed: Progress bar during reference updates.

2021-09-24 Version 1.8.0

• Updated: Scan methods.
• Updated: Info panel.
• Updated: Progress control.
• New: Issue panel.

2021-09-10 Version 1.7.0

• Fixed: Reference not updating if hint path is missing.
• Fixed: Scan and Update progress panel.
• Fixed: Update of multiple projects.
• Fixed: Status panel location.
• New: References update on Solution level.

2021-09-09 Version 1.4.0

• Fixed: Crash when updating more than one project.
• Fixed: Projects not listed if inside solution folders.
• New: Add ability to update multiple projects.
• Fixed: Crash when updating existing reference.
• Fixed: Projects tab page disappearing.
• Fixed: Project update status panel.
• Fixed: Update buttons not enabling.
• Updated: Tab page titles.
• New: Grip Splitter between project and references.

2021-09-08 Version 1.2.0

• Fixed: buttons not enabling after replace.
• Fixed: Projects tab taking all space.

2021-09-08 Version 1.1.0

• Fixed: crash when adding scan location.