Benefits of unloading a project in Visual Studio

Question

Why not keep all projects loaded, how does unloading a project benefit us?

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/tt479x1t(v=vs.100).aspx

Answer 1

When you are building a solution unloaded projects are not building, so build will be faster. Also if you have 40 projects in solution it is just more convenient to unload some of them, which you are not modifying.

Answer 2

Prior to the new .NET Core projects, the only way to edit a project file in Visual Studio was by unloading it and then making the changes in the unloaded project file.

Answer 3

1. When that project is redundant and a new one has been created to replace the old code. Say, it was Proof Of Concept stuff anyway.

2. To edit something in project file itself.

3. In some particular cases, when that project has no dependency and will not be at all required in current development. May be, it was creating its own dll to provide some functionality which will not be required now and you have replaced it with better software you got or purchased from internet.

4. If your current solution is a copy of old solution with a few changes, and this project will not be required currently in the solution but you know that requirements may change and you may have to do something like that in this solution also, then for the time being, you unload it so that rest of the solution loads and works faster. That's why sometimes related projects are unloaded together due to dependency.

Always run a build after unloading a project. You may have to make it work.