How to get rid of "External Dependencies" Folder in C++ applications?

[MyCatAlex]

I have this silly problem. Without my knowledge the VS2019 created this folder and filled it with C++ SDK header files. There are perhaps 300 of them. They came from one of these folders as I found out.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\SDK\ScopeCppSDK\vc15\SDK\include\um
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.18362.0\um
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\SDK\ScopeCppSDK\SDK\include\um
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.17763.0\um
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.17134.0\um
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.16299.0\um

If you expand the folder "External Dependencies" In your Solution Explorer and right click on any header, you will see a dropdown window with this statement: "Include in Project" That mean they should be excluded, they are excluded, right? They are NOT excluded. The linker goes there all the time and gives me surprises, for instance it might say that the inline function I need to use, and already included in the code, is defined differently in one of those header files. How to close that folder "External Dependencies." It is impossible to remove it.

Thanks, - MyCatAlex

Continue reading...