If I want to disable the NuGet Package Restore option, there's no way to do it other than going through each project file and removing the appropriate entries (or was I not looking good enough?). This can be bothersome if there are a lot of projects in the solution.
Comments: Since the product owner keeps asking why anyone would want to disable package restore, here's a couple of reasons. I love NuGet, but find that the Package Restore option is a source of a lot of problems. First of all, I think it solves a problem that's not really a problem: so what if we check in binaries in source control? Disk space is cheap these days. Package Restore solves a problem that's not really a problem, but adds a lot of additional complexity: * What happens if you're offline? You may ask how often anyone would be offline in 2013, but it really depends on your lifestyle. I do all of my coding on an ultrabook and travel regularly, so offline coding is a very real scenario for me. * What happens when you use private repositories? You can set up NuGet to use other package sources than nuget.org, but if you do that and then find yourself in a situation where you can no longer 'see' the custom package source (e.g. it's behind a firewall), once again, you'll have problems. I find that checking in all binaries in a DVCS (Git or Hg) is a much simpler and more robust way to work. So, it uses a few more megabytes on everyone's disk - and so what? In the end, I'm not saying that Package Restore is useless - I'm sure someone can come up with good scenarios. I'm only saying that there are also plenty of scenarios where Package Restore is in the way.
Comments: Since the product owner keeps asking why anyone would want to disable package restore, here's a couple of reasons. I love NuGet, but find that the Package Restore option is a source of a lot of problems. First of all, I think it solves a problem that's not really a problem: so what if we check in binaries in source control? Disk space is cheap these days. Package Restore solves a problem that's not really a problem, but adds a lot of additional complexity: * What happens if you're offline? You may ask how often anyone would be offline in 2013, but it really depends on your lifestyle. I do all of my coding on an ultrabook and travel regularly, so offline coding is a very real scenario for me. * What happens when you use private repositories? You can set up NuGet to use other package sources than nuget.org, but if you do that and then find yourself in a situation where you can no longer 'see' the custom package source (e.g. it's behind a firewall), once again, you'll have problems. I find that checking in all binaries in a DVCS (Git or Hg) is a much simpler and more robust way to work. So, it uses a few more megabytes on everyone's disk - and so what? In the end, I'm not saying that Package Restore is useless - I'm sure someone can come up with good scenarios. I'm only saying that there are also plenty of scenarios where Package Restore is in the way.