Visual Studio Solutions Folder as real Folders

Question

I have a Visual Studio Solution. Currently, it is an empty solution (=no projects) and I have added a few solution folders.

Solution Folders only seem to be "virtual folders", because they are not really created in the Filesystem and files inside solution folders are just sitting in the same folder as the .sln file.

Is there a setting that I've overlooked that tells Visual Studio to treat Solution Folders as "real" folders, that is to create them in the file system and move files into it when I move them inside the solution into one of those folders?

Answer 1

There is no special setting that would help you to resolve this issue but there is a workaround, that behaves as expected. For this follow the steps

Add a New or Existing Web Site to the Solution.

Just make sure it's created inside your solution folder.

even create a "link" to an external folder, e.g. 'Docs' on a network share. In that case, it's ignored by Git of course.

Make sure to go to the "Project" settings or Configuration Manager to exclude this "Web Site" from Build and Deploy.

Done. Now Solution Explorer will reflect any change in the file system and vice versa.

This is not the official feature though but it helps you to have the solution folders as real folders.