What is the difference between Build Solution and Batch Build in Visual Studio 2008?

Question

What is the difference between Build Solution and Batch Build in Visual Studio 2008?

Answer 1

Building the solution is the same as batch building all projects. Both methods respect the solution's dependencies.

Answer 2

Batch build allows you to build any project that you select, a Solution build only builds the projects that are part of the active solution.

You can customise what projects are part of a solution build by going to tools->configuration manager

Answer 3

The key point which seems to be missed in both the existing answers is that batch build allows you to build multiple configurations of each project. (e.g. you can build debug AND release configurations with a single operation)

With a normal build, you have to use the configuration manager to select just one configuration for each project.

Answer 4

Another nice thing about batch build is that it lets you build a configuration different than the current one. Handy for solutions that take a while to switch.