Why does Visual Studio 2010 recompile my C# project on debug restart?

Question

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask, but as it's programming related, here it is:

I have a solution with several projects (all .NET/C# based. some libraries, some WPF, some XNA, some portable class library, all together) and I have problems with performance:

1. While running my project, when I hit restart (Ctrl+Shift+F5) while debugging, the instance stops, VS recompiles all the projects in the solution again, and then it runs again.

2. When I stop my running instance. Without touching any code (not even spacebar in the code editor), I hit F5 and similarly, it again recompiles the whole solution.

3. When I'm working in only one of the projects and hit Debug without touching any code in the other projects in the solution, VS, again, recompiles all the projects in the solution.

This creates a real bottleneck as my project normally starts in <1 sec. but it compiles for a few seconds even on SSD. A few seconds don't seem much but I make some very small changes to only one code file and try something several times by running the application again and again, it becomes a real trouble.

Answer 1

I've found out the reason and the problem is solved. I was using BuildVersionIncrement plugin and it was incrementing the build number every time I compile, and Visual Studio was thinking that, because of the change in files, the project was outdated, thus, bebuilding the whole solution. I changed the BuildVersionIncrement settings to increment only on full rebuild, and the problem is solved.

Answer 2

I think that if you have your studio setup to always build, it will do so. Make sure you have the correct settings in studio. See below.