What is the significance of ProjectTypeGuids tag i

Question

What is the significance of the ProjectTypeGuids tag in a visual studio project?? When I created a WPF application, i am seeing two GUIDs in here.

{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}**

Does these represent WPF and Windows type of applications?

If I create my own project type (.myproj) that has .xaml and .cs files, what should I fill in this ProjectTypeGuids tags? Should I also need to fill the ProjectType tag?

It would also be better if someone differentiate the ProjectType and ProjectTypeGuids*tags.

Answer 1

A thread at msdn has already been started and a lot has been discussed out there. If anybody is interested to know about this, check What is the significance of ProjectTypeGuids tag in the visual studio project file

ProjectTypeGuids is used by Visual Studio for project aggregation. In your example you have a WPF (represented by 60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548) C# project (represented by FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC).

If you have a custom project type working with both .xaml and .cs you should try to add your custom project guid (specified by your project factory GUID) as below:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{YourProjectFactoryClassGUID};{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC} </ProjectTypeGuids>

Answer 2

• {FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC} is the GUID for C# project
• {60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548} is for project in WPF flavor package

So your ProjectTypeGuids is for a WPF C# project.

You could see the meaning of the different GUID in the register :

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Projects for ProjectTypeGuids
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages for packages reference by some project

Some ProjectTypeGuids

Windows (C#)           {FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}
Windows (VB.NET)       {F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}
Windows (Visual C++)   {8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}
Web Application        {349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}
Web Site               {E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}
WCF                    {3D9AD99F-2412-4246-B90B-4EAA41C64699}
WPF                    {60DC8134-EBA5-43B8-BCC9-BB4BC16C2548}
XNA (Windows)          {6D335F3A-9D43-41b4-9D22-F6F17C4BE596}
XNA (XBox)             {2DF5C3F4-5A5F-47a9-8E94-23B4456F55E2}
XNA (Zune)             {D399B71A-8929-442a-A9AC-8BEC78BB2433}
Silverlight            {A1591282-1198-4647-A2B1-27E5FF5F6F3B}
ASP.NET MVC            {F85E285D-A4E0-4152-9332-AB1D724D3325}
ASP.NET MVC 4          {E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47}
Test                   {3AC096D0-A1C2-E12C-1390-A8335801FDAB}
Solution Folder        {2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}      

Answer 3

From MZ-Tools: List of known project type Guids:

Every Visual Studio project has a project type (Windows project, Smart Device project, Web Site project, etc.) and in some cases more than one type (subtypes or flavors).

Every project type is identified by a unique Guid, so every project has one or more project type Guids.

Project type Guids are stored generally in the project file:

<PropertyGroup>
    <ProjectTypeGuids>{A860303F-1F3F-4691-B57E-529FC101A107};{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}</ProjectTypeGuids>
    ...
</PropertyGroup> 

But for some special projects (such as some database projects) and projects lacking a file (such as Web Site projects), the project type is stored also in the solution file:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Studio 2008
Project("{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}") = "SqlServerProject1", "SqlServerProject1.vbproj", "{BE5F0BE0-93CD-4FCE-A853-9096A442DF1B}"
EndProject

The project type Guids are stored in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<version>\Projects. However, not all the Guids stored in that registry key are actual project types. Some of them are used only to provide project templates (for C# and VB.NET projects) and others have other purposes. The following table lists known project type Guids.

Project Type Description                 Project Type Guid

Windows (C#)                             {FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}
Windows (VB.NET)                         {F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}
Windows (Visual C++)                     {8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}
Web Application                          {349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}
Web Site                                 {E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}
Distributed System                       {F135691A-BF7E-435D-8960-F99683D2D49C}
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)   {3D9AD99F-2412-4246-B90B-4EAA41C64699}
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)    {60DC8134-EBA5-43B8-BCC9-BB4BC16C2548}
Visual Database Tools                    {C252FEB5-A946-4202-B1D4-9916A0590387}
Database                                 {A9ACE9BB-CECE-4E62-9AA4-C7E7C5BD2124}
Database (other project types)           {4F174C21-8C12-11D0-8340-0000F80270F8}
Test                                     {3AC096D0-A1C2-E12C-1390-A8335801FDAB}
Legacy (2003) Smart Device (C#)          {20D4826A-C6FA-45DB-90F4-C717570B9F32}
Legacy (2003) Smart Device (VB.NET)      {CB4CE8C6-1BDB-4DC7-A4D3-65A1999772F8}
Smart Device (C#)                        {4D628B5B-2FBC-4AA6-8C16-197242AEB884}
Smart Device (VB.NET)                    {68B1623D-7FB9-47D8-8664-7ECEA3297D4F}
Workflow (C#)                            {14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079}
Workflow (VB.NET)                        {D59BE175-2ED0-4C54-BE3D-CDAA9F3214C8}
Deployment Merge Module                  {06A35CCD-C46D-44D5-987B-CF40FF872267}
Deployment Cab                           {3EA9E505-35AC-4774-B492-AD1749C4943A}
Deployment Setup                         {978C614F-708E-4E1A-B201-565925725DBA}
Deployment Smart Device Cab              {AB322303-2255-48EF-A496-5904EB18DA55}
Visual Studio Tools for Apps (VSTA)      {A860303F-1F3F-4691-B57E-529FC101A107}
Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)    {BAA0C2D2-18E2-41B9-852F-F413020CAA33}
SharePoint Workflow                      {F8810EC1-6754-47FC-A15F-DFABD2E3FA90}
XNA (Windows)                            {6D335F3A-9D43-41b4-9D22-F6F17C4BE596}
XNA (XBox)                               {2DF5C3F4-5A5F-47a9-8E94-23B4456F55E2}
XNA (Zune)                               {D399B71A-8929-442a-A9AC-8BEC78BB2433}
SharePoint (VB.NET)                      {EC05E597-79D4-47f3-ADA0-324C4F7C7484}
SharePoint (C#)                          {593B0543-81F6-4436-BA1E-4747859CAAE2}
Silverlight                              {A1591282-1198-4647-A2B1-27E5FF5F6F3B}
ASP.NET MVC 1.0                          {603C0E0B-DB56-11DC-BE95-000D561079B0}
ASP.NET MVC 2.0                          {F85E285D-A4E0-4152-9332-AB1D724D3325}
ASP.NET MVC 3.0                          {E53F8FEA-EAE0-44A6-8774-FFD645390401}
ASP.NET MVC 4.0                          {E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47}