[visual-studio] How to fully clean bin and obj folders within Visual Studio?

If you right click on a folder, you will see a "Clean" menu item. I assumed this would clean (remove) the obj and bin directory. However, as far as I can see, it does nothing. Is there another way? (please don't tell me to go to Windows Explorer or the cmd.exe) I'd like to remove the obj and bin folder so that I can easily zip the whole thing.

this answer is great I just want to comment on the last part of the answer

NOTE : You should have this stored in a PowerShell file and place that file at the root of your solution (where the .sln file resides), and then run it when you want a proper clean (not the micky mouse one that VisualStudio does, and reports success too).

Alternatively, you can add the following to your profile.ps1

function CleanSolution {
    Get-ChildItem -inc bin,obj -rec | Remove-Item -rec -force
}

Set-Alias cs CleanSolution 

Then you can use either CleanSolution or cs to run. That way you can use it for any project and without the ./ prefix of the filename

Visual Studio Extension

Right Click Solution - Select "Delete bin and obj folders"

If you are using git and have a correct .gitignore in your project, you can

git clean -xdf --dry-run

to remove absolutely every file on the .gitignore list, i.e. it will clean obj, and bin folders (the x triggers this behavior)

Just an addendum to all the fine answers above in case someone doesn't realize how easy it is in VB/C# to automate the entire process down to the zip archive.

So you just grab a simple Forms app from the templates (if you don't already have a housekeeping app) and add a button to it and then ClickOnce install it to your desktop without worrying about special settings or much of anything. This is all the code you need to attach to the button:

Imports System.IO.Compression

Private Sub btnArchive_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnArchive.Click
    Dim src As String = "C:\Project"
    Dim dest As String = Path.Combine("D:\Archive", "Stub" & Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss") & ".zip")
    If IsProjectOpen() Then 'You don't want Visual Studio holding a lock on anything while you're deleting folders
        MsgBox("Close projects first, (expletive deleted)", vbOKOnly)
        Exit Sub
    End If
    If MsgBox("Are you sure you want to delete bin and obj folders?", vbOKCancel) = DialogResult.Cancel Then Exit Sub
    If ClearBinAndObj(src) Then ZipFile.CreateFromDirectory(src, dest)
End Sub

Public Function ClearBinAndObj(targetDir As String) As Boolean
    Dim dirstodelete As New List(Of String)
    For Each d As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(targetDir, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories, "bin")
        dirstodelete.Add(d)
    Next
    For Each d As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(targetDir, FileIO.SearchOption.SearchAllSubDirectories, "obj")
        dirstodelete.Add(d)
    Next
    For Each d In dirstodelete
        Try
            Directory.Delete(d, True)
        Catch ex As Exception
            If MsgBox("Error: " & ex.Message & " - OK to continue?", vbOKCancel) = MsgBoxResult.Cancel Then Return False
        End Try
    Next
    Return True
End Function

Public Function IsProjectOpen()
    For Each clsProcess As Process In Process.GetProcesses()
        If clsProcess.ProcessName.Equals("devenv") Then Return True
    Next
    Return False
End Function

One thing to remember is that file system deletes can go wrong easily. One of my favorites was when I realized that I couldn't delete a folder because it contained items created by Visual Studio while running with elevated privileges (so that I could debug a service).

I needed to manually give permission or, I suppose, run the app with elevated privileges also. Either way, I think there is some value in using an interactive GUI-based approach over a script, specially since this is likely something that is done at the end of a long day and you don't want to find out later that your backup doesn't actually exist...

I store my finished VS projects by saving only source code.

I delete BIN, DEBUG, RELEASE, OBJ, ARM and .vs folders from all projects.

This reduces the size of the project considerably. The project

must be rebuilt when pulled out of storage.

To delete bin and obj before build add to project file:

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <!-- Remove obj folder -->
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" />
    <!-- Remove bin folder -->
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseOutputPath)" />
</Target>

Here is article: How to remove bin and/or obj folder before the build or deploy

Update: Visual Studio 2019 (Clean [bin] and [obj] before release). However I am not sure if [obj] needs to be deleted. Be aware there is nuget package configuration placed too. You can remove the second line if you think so.

<Target Name="PreBuild" BeforeTargets="PreBuildEvent" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
  <!--remove bin-->
  <Exec Command="rd /s /q &quot;$(ProjectDir)$(BaseOutputPath)&quot; &amp;&amp; ^" />
  <!--remove obj-->
  <Exec Command="rd /s /q &quot;$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)Release&quot;" />
</Target>

Check out Ron Jacobs fantastic open source CleanProject It even takes care of the zipping if you like.

Here is the CodePlex link

Clean will remove all intermediate and final files created by the build process, such as .obj files and .exe or .dll files.

It does not, however, remove the directories where those files get built. I don't see a compelling reason why you need the directories to be removed. Can you explain further?

If you look inside these directories before and after a "Clean", you should see your compiled output get cleaned up.

For Visual Studio 2015 the MSBuild variables have changed a bit:

  <Target Name="SpicNSpan" AfterTargets="Clean"> <!-- common vars https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c02as0cs.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 -->
         <RemoveDir Directories="$(TargetDir)" /> <!-- bin -->
         <RemoveDir Directories="$(SolutionDir).vs" /> <!-- .vs -->
         <RemoveDir Directories="$(ProjectDir)$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" /> <!-- obj -->
  </Target>

Notice that this snippet also wipes out the .vs folder from the root directory of your solution. You may want to comment out the associated line if you feel that removing the .vs folder is an overkill. I have it enabled because I noticed that in some third party projects it causes issues when files ala application.config exist inside the .vs folder.

Addendum:

If you are into optimizing the maintainability of your solutions you might want to take things one step further and place the above snippet into a separate file like so:

  <Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
       <Target Name="SpicNSpan" AfterTargets="Clean"> <!-- common vars https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c02as0cs.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 -->
            <RemoveDir Directories="$(TargetDir)" /> <!-- bin -->
            <RemoveDir Directories="$(SolutionDir).vs" /> <!-- .vs -->
            <RemoveDir Directories="$(ProjectDir)$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" /> <!-- obj -->
       </Target>
  </Project>

And then include this file at the very end of each and every one of your *.csproj files like so:

     [...]
     <Import Project="..\..\Tools\ExtraCleanup.targets"/>
  </Project>

This way you can enrich or fine-tune your extra-cleanup-logic centrally, in one place without going through the pains of manually editing each and every *.csproj file by hand every time you want to make an improvement.

As others have responded already Clean will remove all artifacts that are generated by the build. But it will leave behind everything else.

If you have some customizations in your MSBuild project this could spell trouble and leave behind stuff you would think it should have deleted.

You can circumvent this problem with a simple change to your .*proj by adding this somewhere near the end :

<Target Name="SpicNSpan"
        AfterTargets="Clean">
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(OUTDIR)"/>
</Target>

Which will remove everything in your bin folder of the current platform/configuration.

------ Edit Slight evolution based on Shaman's answer below (share the votes and give him some too)

<Target Name="SpicNSpan"  AfterTargets="Clean">
    <!-- Remove obj folder -->
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" />
    <!-- Remove bin folder -->
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseOutputPath)" />
</Target>

---- Edit again with parts from xDisruptor but I removed the .vs deletion as this would be better served in a .gitignore (or equivalent)

Updated for VS 2015.

<Target Name="SpicNSpan" AfterTargets="Clean"> <!-- common vars https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c02as0cs.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 -->
     <RemoveDir Directories="$(TargetDir)" /> <!-- bin -->
     <RemoveDir Directories="$(ProjectDir)$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" /> <!-- obj -->
</Target>

He also provides a good suggestion on making the task easier to deploy and maintain if you have multiple projects to push this into.

If you vote this answer be sure to vote them both as well.

I can't add a comment yet (no minimal reputation reached)
so I leave this reply to underline that:

the "BeforeBuild" action with <RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" /> is great but, for me, is conflicting with an Entity Framework model included into the same project.

The error I receive is:

Error reading resource '{mymodel}.csdl' -- 'Could not find a part of the path '{myprojectpath}\obj\Release\edmxResourcesToEmbed\{mymodel}.csdl

I suppose, the "edmxResourcesToembed" is created before the "BeforeBuild" target action is executed.

This site: https://sachabarbs.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/powershell-to-clean-visual-studio-binobj-folders/ uses William Kempf's powershell commands to remove any bin and obj folders from the current directory and sub directories. It should be possible to run it from the root of the drive.

Here is William's version

 gci -inc bin,obj -rec | rm -rec -force

In William's own words:

That wipes out all of the “bin” and “obj” directories in the current directory and every subdirectory. Super useful to run in your workspace directory to get to a “clean” state, especially when someone messes up and there’s something that a Clean or Rebuild inside the IDE doesn’t catch.

For those of you reading that may not know, PowerShell supports command aliases, here it is rewritten again not using the aliases

Get-ChildItem -inc bin,obj -rec | Remove-Item -rec -force

NOTE : You should have this stored in a PowerShell file and place that file at the root of your solution (where the .sln file resides), and then run it when you want a proper clean (not the micky mouse one that VisualStudio does, and reports success too).

In windows just open the explorer navigate to your SLN folder click into search field and type kind:=folder;obj --> for obj folders use CTRL+A and delete 'em - same for bin Done

No need for any tool or extra software ;)

I use VisualStudioClean which is easy to understand and predictable. Knowing how it works and what files it is going to delete relieves me.

Previously I tried VSClean (note VisualStudioClean is not VSClean), VSClean is more advanced, it has many configurations that sometimes makes me wondering what files it is going to delete? One mis-configuration will result in lose of my source codes. Testing how the configuration will work need backing up all my projects which take a lot of times, so in the end I choose VisualStudioClean instead.

Conclusion : VisualStudioClean if you want basic cleaning, VSClean for more complex scenario.

You can easily find and remove bin and obj folders in Far Manager.

1. Navigate to you solution and press Alt+F7

2. In search setting dialog:

   • Type "bin,obj" in field "A file mask or several file masks"
   • Check option "Search for folders"
   • Press Enter

3. After the search is done, switch view to "Panel".

4. Select all files (with Ctrl+A) and delete folders (press "Shift+Del")

Hope it helps someone.

Based on Joe answer, I've converted the VB code into C# :

/// <summary>
/// Based on code of VSProjCleaner tool (C) 2005 Francesco Balena, Code Archirects
/// </summary>
static class VisualStudioCleaner
{
    public static void Process(string rootDir)
    {
        // Read all the folder names in the specified directory tree
        string[] dirNames = Directory.GetDirectories(rootDir, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
        List<string> errorsList = new List<string>();

        // delete any .suo and csproj.user file
        foreach (string dir in dirNames) {
            var files = new List<string>();
            files.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(dir, "*.suo"));
            files.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(dir, "*.user"));
            foreach (string fileName in files) {
                try {
                    Console.Write("Deleting {0} ...", fileName);
                    File.Delete(fileName);
                    Console.WriteLine("DONE");
                } catch (Exception ex) {
                    Console.WriteLine();
                    Console.WriteLine(" ERROR: {0}", ex.Message);
                    errorsList.Add(fileName + ": " + ex.Message);
                }
            }
        }

        // Delete all the BIN and OBJ subdirectories
        foreach (string dir in dirNames) {
            string dirName = Path.GetFileName(dir).ToLower();
            if (dirName == "bin" || dirName == "obj") {
                try {
                    Console.Write("Deleting {0} ...", dir);
                    Directory.Delete(dir, true);
                    Console.WriteLine("DONE");
                } catch (Exception ex) {
                    Console.WriteLine();
                    Console.WriteLine(" ERROR: {0}", ex.Message);
                    errorsList.Add(dir + ": " + ex.Message);
                }
            }
        }
        Console.WriteLine(new string('-', 60));
        if (errorsList.Count == 0) {
            Console.WriteLine("All directories and files were removed successfully");
        } else {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} directories or directories couldn't be removed", errorsList.Count);
            Console.WriteLine(new string('-', 60));
            foreach (string msg in errorsList) {
                Console.WriteLine(msg);
            }
        }
    }
}

This is how I do with a batch file to delete all BIN and OBJ folders recursively.

• Create an empty file and name it DeleteBinObjFolders.bat
• Copy-paste code the below code into the DeleteBinObjFolders.bat
• Move the DeleteBinObjFolders.bat file in the same folder with your solution (*.sln) file.

@echo off
@echo Deleting all BIN and OBJ folders...
for /d /r . %%d in (bin,obj) do @if exist "%%d" rd /s/q "%%d"
@echo BIN and OBJ folders successfully deleted :) Close the window.
pause > nul

It doesn't remove the folders, but it does remove the build by-products. Is there any reason you want the actual build folders removed?