While Visual Studio (like any other decent IDE) provides such an option to clean the artifacts, and empty the bin and obj folders, I found it not perfect all the time, like changes made in the appsettings.json file, don't always get updated after the rebuild.
I needed a way to run my .NET projects with the confidence that they include my most recent changes, so I don't stare at the screen and wonder if what I see is really what I just changed.
The safest option to ensure that the artifacts are being rebuilt is to manually delete them. So I found a way to automate this. Bear with me...
Deleting the bin and obj folders using a PowerShell script
I don't remember how I got it, did I write it? did I ask ChatGPT to write it... I don't remember, the important thing here is that it's working exactly as I want it, you can run it on any path and be assured that it will delete any nested bin/obj folders, it's a simple script:
Get-ChildItem -Path "." .\ -include bin, obj -Recurse | ForEach-Object ($_) { remove-item $_.fullname -Force -Recurse }
Remember to set the path of the PowerShell terminal to the root path you want to scrape its bin/obj folders. Running it on the default path of the PowerShell window will probably take a hell amount of time to finish to go through all the nested bin/obj folders.
Adding the Script to Visual Studio external tools
One of the least-known features of Visual Studio is the External Tools, it allows you to plugin any external tool directly into Visual Studio, and it is such a perfect place to add the script so that we run it easily and conveniently.
From the Tools menu select> External Tools...
In the Window, click Add to add a new "external tool", fill in the fields with these values:
Title: Hard Clean (up to you)
Command: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Arguments: -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Command "&{ Get-ChildItem -Path "." .\ -include bin, obj -Recurse | ForEach-Object ($_) { remove-item $_.fullname -Force -Recurse }}
Initial directory: $(SolutionDir)
Tick the "Close on exit" option, then click OK to save.
Now, the "Hard Clean" option will appear under the tools menu and it will do the trick> recursively deleting all bin/obj folders under the current solution path.
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