Robustly Upgrading Target .NET Framework Version

Written by Ken Dale

As I’ve walked through upgrading a number of solutions to target a new version of the .NET Framework, I’ve compiled a list of helpful steps:

Run git clean -xdf to remove files not in the repository (or, delete packages folder, all bin, all obj folders)
Update framework version on all projects
Delete all binding redirects in all projects (search the solution for <runtime>)
Package Manager Console: Get-Project -All | Update-Package -Reinstall (review for failures when complete, this may fail if any packages are delisted)
Package Manager Console: Get-Project -All | Add-BindingRedirect
Cleanup any unwanted files added by the reinstall of NuGet packages
Cleanup duplicate entries of <Private>True</Private>
Cleanup any other issues you may find (look through the changes)
Build solution and review output for binding redirect issues or anything else