Combine Visual Studio deployment projects

Question

I've got several complex deployment projects that I'd like to combine into a single project.

All the deployment projects are in the same solution. I'm combining them to simplify the build and the installation process.

The individual deployment projects are obsolete, and going forward I only want to use the combined deployment project.

Frustratingly, Visual Studio 2008 doesn't let me copy and paste from one deployment project into another. For instance, I can't cut from the File System window in one project and past in the File System window in another project.

What's the best way to combine multiple deployment projects?

Answer 1

The problem is that the deployment project file specification is an archaic thing inherited by VS2008 (and VS2010 for that matter) from previous versions.

However, you might be able to edit the project files manually in any text editor.