Visual Studio: How to "Copy to Output Directory" without copying the folder structure?

I have a few dll files in \lib folder of my project folder. In the property page of dll, I have selected "Build Action" as "Content" and "Copy to Output Directory" as "Copy always".

After build I am actually getting the dll copied but they are inside \bin\Release\lib and not in \bin\Release.

Is there a way to copy dll files to \bin\Release (and not to \bin\Release\lib) without writing a post-build script or resorting to nant etc?

Add the dll-files as a reference to the project, and on the reference set "Copy local" to true.

I had the same problem with Visual Studio 2010 / C# Project.

For assemblies (i. e. having the .NET interface) use folder "References" under your project in the Solution Explorer. Right click it, choose "Add existing item" and locate your .dll assembly.

Common .dll files can be placed in a subfolder (as "\lib" was mentioned above) and in the properties select:

- Build Action = "HelpFiles"
- Copy To OutputDirectory = "If Newer"

This worked for me exactly as desired - during build, the .DLLs are copied to the output directory without the "\lib" subfolder.

It seems in VisualStudio 2015 that if the dlls you are 'adding with a link' are *in a subfolder of that same project* - they will be automatically put a folder, and the output is also placed in a folder like you saw.

If the dlls are in another project or directory on disk *not in a subfolder of the project*, you can 'Add with a link', and they will be put in the root directory just fine.

Keep them in `$(ProjectDir)\Lib`, but add those files "[As a link][1]" to the root of your .csproj. Now they will get copied to bin\Debug (or whatever other output folder) without being in lib.

[1]:

[To see links please register here]

EDIT: This answer was written way back when ContentWithTargetPath was not available in the versions of VS/MSBuild I was using. Leaving this answer here for people who might have to use an older version of VS. Please stop commenting on this, we all know there are better ways now.

If your main intent is to include DLLs without cluttering up the project root directory, another solution is to **move the DLLs to a separate Shared Project** and add this as a reference in the original project.

(Note that this post doesn't directly answer this question as it doesn't preserve the folder and project structure, but I found this approach useful because I was able to restructure my project in my case and because I wanted to avoid some of the downsides of the other approaches here.)

Steps

- Right-click your `Solution -> Add -> New Project -> Shared Project`
- Add the DLLs to this project (in the root directory of this project, not in a "lib" sub-folder)
- (Check DLL file properties are set correctly, e.g. `Build Action: Content` and `Copy to Output Directory: Copy Always`)
- Right-click the original project's `References -> Add Reference -> Shared Projects`
- Select the shared project you created earlier

The setup looks like this:

[![solution-explorer-screenshot][1]][1]


[1]: