[Solved]: Visual Studio: Showing Attach to Process instead of Run

If you are not able to see the Application name on the “Run” Button and instead you see below popup, its likely to below mentioned issues.

Issue 1

Visual Studio shows Run option only if a recognizable solution is opened. For example, if you have not opened the solution using the “.sln” file , VS will show option to attach any process to the same. In the above example, only standalone “csproj” file is opened in visual studio.

Solution:

Open the project using the “.sln” file and you will be able to see the Start Button/ a button displaying the project name as below:

You can look whether solution is opened on the solution explorer or on the top bar as highlighted below:

Issue 2

It is possible that the dotnet environment variable is not set. Please find below steps to update the Environment Variable

Solution:

1. Press Windows + R to open Run Box
2. Enter the command : rundll32.exe sysdm.cpl,EditEnvironmentVariables
3. Edit the PATH variable in the System Variables, and add the location of the dotnet.exe (Ex. C:\Program Files\dotnet)

Please let us know about your suggestions in the comment box.