ms.date: "08/30/2019"

This topic applies to Windows projects. For non-Windows projects, see [Linux C++ Property Page Reference](../../linux/prop-pages-linux.md).

When you right-click on a file node **Solution Explorer**, the **General** property page under the **Configuration Properties** node opens. It contains the following properties:

The tool that will be used to build this file. The **Item Type** specifies the tool that will be used to process the file during the build process. [Files whose extension is known to Visual Studio](/visualstudio/extensibility/visual-cpp-project-extensibility?view=vs-2019#project-items) have a default value. You can specify a custom tool here if you have a custom file type or wish to override the default tool for a known file type. See [Specifying Custom Build Tools](../specifying-custom-build-tools.md) for more information. You can also use this property page to specify that a file is not part of the build process.

The following illustration shows the property page for a *.cpp* file. The default **Item Type** for this kind of file is the **C/C++ Compiler** (*cl.exe*) and the property page exposes various compiler settings that can be applied to this file only.


The following table lists the default Item Types:

|File extension|Item Type|Default Tool|

|-|-|-|

|.appx|XAML Application Definition|[App packager](/windows/win32/appxpkg/make-appx-package--makeappx-exe-)|

|.hlsl, .cso|HLSL Compiler|[fxc.exe](/windows/win32/direct3dtools/fxc)|

|.h|C/C++ Header|[C/C++ Preprocessor](../../preprocessor/c-cpp-preprocessor-reference.md)|

|n/a|Does not participate in build|n/a|

|.xml, .xslt, .xsl|Xml|[XML Editor](/visualstudio/xml-tools/xml-editor)|

|.resw, .resjson|PRI Resource (UWP Apps)|[MakePri.exe](/windows/uwp/app-resources/compile-resources-manually-with-makepri)|

||Media (UWP)|[App packager](/windows/win32/appxpkg/make-appx-package--makeappx-exe-)|

|.xsd|XML Data Generator Tool|[XML Schema Definition Tool (Xsd.exe)](/dotnet/standard/serialization/xml-schema-definition-tool-xsd-exe) (Requires .NET workload. Not included with MSVC.)|

||Manifest Tool|[mt.exe](/windows/win32/sbscs/mt-exe)|

|.rc|Resource|[Windows Resource Compiler (rc.exe)](/windows/win32/menurc/resource-compiler)|

|.appxmanifest|App Package Manifest|[App packager](/windows/win32/appxpkg/make-appx-package--makeappx-exe-)|

|.obj|Object|[C/C++ Linker (link.exe)](cl-invokes-the-linker.md)|

|.ttf|Font|n/a|

|.txt|Text|n/a|

|n/a|Custom Build Tool|User-defined|

|n/a|Copy file|n/a|

|.packagelayout|App Package Layout|[App packager](/windows/win32/appxpkg/make-appx-package--makeappx-exe-)|

|.resx|Compiler Managed Resource|[Resgen.exe (Resource File Generator)](/dotnet/framework/tools/resgen-exe-resource-file-generator)|

|.natvis|C++ Debugger visualization file|[Natvis framework](/visualstudio/debugger/create-custom-views-of-native-objects)|

|.jpg, .bmp, .ico, etc.|Image|Resource compiler based on application type.|

|.cpp|C/C++ Compiler|cl.exe|