How do I edit the Visual Studio templates for new C# class/interface?

by

2022

Visual Studio 2022 is now a 64bit process so its location has changed to using Program Files instead.

%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio\<year>\<edition>\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.cs

Year Edition Absolute path
2022 Community %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
Enterprise %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
Professional %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Professional\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs

2017 through 2019

Visual Studio 2017 changed the directory location to use release year instead of its internal version number, and is additionally dependent on your edition (Professional/Enterprise/etc.):

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio <year>\<edition>\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.cs

Year Edition Absolute path
2019 Community %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2019\Community\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
Enterprise %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
Professional %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
2017 Community %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2017\Community\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
Enterprise %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2017\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs
Professional %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2017\Professional\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs

2012 through 2015

Starting with VS 2012, the templates are not zipped, so you can edit each .cs template in each applicable folder directly.

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio <version>\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.cs

Year Version Absolute path
2015 14.0 %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.cs
2013 12.0 %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.cs
2012 11.0 %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\1033\Class.cs

2010 and older

Extract, edit and recompress the ZIP file. Paths are for the class template, but interface templates are in the same folder.

You may want to edit the VS template file in each to remove the fact that they don’t automatically add references to the assemblies System, System.Data and/or System.Xml.

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio <version>\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.zip

Year Version Absolute path
2010 10.0 %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.zip
2008 9.0 %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class.zip
2005 8 %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\1033\Class.zip

Notes

Express Editions

In Express Editions you will have to search in the subdirectory WDExpress inside the IDE folder, so e.g. for VS 2015 Express:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\WDExpress\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033\Class\Class.cs

Other Languages

If you don’t use the English version of Visual Studio, the folder 1033 may not exist, but a different number representing your language. For example it is 1031 in a German installation.

More Related Contents:

  1. How to add OpenCV files in Visual Studio
  2. CMD command on c#
  3. Scientific Calculator in C# [closed]
  4. How to create and use resources in .NET
  5. Why does .NET add an additional slash to the already existent slashes in a path?
  6. “A project with an Output type of Class Library cannot be started directly”
  7. Add Items to Columns in a WPF ListView
  8. ‘Newtonsoft’ could not be found
  9. Could not load file or assembly System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe
  10. How can I embed an application manifest into an application using VS2008?
  11. Custom path of the user.config
  12. Click through transparency for Visual C# Window Forms?
  13. Asynchronously sending Emails in C#?
  14. Microsoft Visual Studio and C#: How to Visually Add Events to Controls?
  15. The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET Core 2.2. (SDK 2.2.202)
  16. Create web service proxy in Visual Studio from a WSDL file
  17. How can I use C# 8 with Visual Studio 2017?
  18. IIS Express Immediately shutting-down running site after stopping web application
  19. Visual Studio – project shows up as “Miscellaneous Files”
  20. Compile to a stand-alone executable (.exe) in Visual Studio
  21. Include ONLY .xml file of SPECIFIC nuget package in a different folder
  22. Check if a folder exist in a directory and create them using C#
  23. streamWriter rewrite the file or append to the file
  24. Installing a .NetStandard 2.0 Nuget package into a VS2015 Net 4.6.1 project
  25. How to get relative path of a file in visual studio?
  26. Visual Studio: auto attach to a process when the process is spawned
  27. How do I default Visual Studio to C# projects instead of VB.NET?
  28. Active solution platform VS Project Platform VS Platform target
  29. Prism assembly reference failure: System.Windows.Interactivity
  30. Visual Studio : executing clean up code when debugging stops

Leave a Comment