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I am new to Visual Studio. I just followed a tutorial and successfully wrote and ran a simple program. But after I closed Visual Studio and double click the cpp file I just wrote. I can't find the build menu in the Visual Studio. Could anyone tell me how to open and run the existing cpp file? I need to do some debug and don't want to begin a new project and copy the code again and again. Thanks!

IInspectable
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jason
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2 Answers2

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You need to open more than the .cpp file alone.

Make sure you open the whole project or solution (File/Open/Project - .sln, .vcxproj, .vcproj). Double clicking on a .cpp file will open that file only.

Then you should be able to build the project (or hit Ctrl-F5).

Danny_ds
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    To be more precise, open the file that ends in .sln or in .vcxproj, they are the project file that instruct VS how to build your program and what files it needs – rlam12 Jan 19 '16 at 03:18
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I faced this problem suddenly in vs 2022 in one of my projects c#. When I opened other project it looks ok and the build menu is available.

When inspecting the project, I found by accident that the project is opened as folder (open folder). I closed the project then select 'open project or Solution' and every thing is ok.

So the root issue is that project is opened as folder.

M.Hassan
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