Missing files in Visual Studio Express, cannot open project; If I recreate project, can I still somehow sync with Github?

Question

I have a solution in Visual Studio Express (2013). I am now getting two errors, essentially the same message associate with two projects: "Unable to open module file 'C:\Users\TJC\AppData\Local\Temp.NETFramework,Version=v4.5.AssemblyAttributes.vb': The system cannot find the file specified."

All my code is still here, and I was thinking the simplest thing to do is just start over with a new project, copying and pasting the important C# file (there's really only one, plus a few small tests) from the old location. But if I do that, is there a way to set it up so I can get back in sync with my repository on Github?

I know I could just start a fresh Github repository, but I'd like to keep my history.

I have checked, and my backup does not include the missing file (I'm not clear why an essential file would be in a temp directory, anyway, but that directory is not backed up); nor is it in the Git repository.

I encountered the error today just after applying an update to VS Express, but I suspect it's unrelated; I think I did a "disk cleanup" when I emptied trash sometime in the last month, and that likely deleted this file.

Apart from a short comment, my local source files match my Github files; i.e., I have no significant uncommited/unmerged local changes.

Answer 1

It turns out that rebuilding the solution recreated the missing files, making my issue moot.

However, for anyone else looking in, I think my other solution would have been to upgrade from Visual Studio Express 2013 to Visual Studio Community 2017. VS Community 2017 permits a git force, as described in the answer to this question, and that looks like it would have done the job for me. VSE 2013 does not include that option; it was added in VSC 2017.

I assume I could have also done a command-line git push force, too, but I'm not all that adept with git, so that would have probably led to its own challenges for me (although would probably be the easiest for someone who knows git pretty well).