How to keep a minimum of solution platforms in the configuration manager?

Question

When I create a Class Library project my solution adds an "AnyCpu" platform. After adding a WPF project it adds a "x86" platform. Then when I create a Console project it finally creates a solution-wide "Mixed Platforms" platform. There are 2 problems:

• When I try to compile it on a 32 bit machine the Debug binary won't work unless I replace all "AnyCpu" references by "x86" in all .csproj files (the Release binary works however)
• The configuration manager and the .sln files are cluttered

How to avoid those problems?

Answer 1

You can specify all this configuration in a single MSBuild properties file and just import in each csproj so you just neeed to change it in one place going further.

<!-- Add in the each csproj file -->
<Import Project="..\CommonProperties.properties" />


<!-- CommonProperties.properties file -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

    <PropertyGroup>
      <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">x86</Platform>
    </PropertyGroup>

</Project>