When I played with NuGet after it's first arrival I was irritated by it because it obscured how things worked. I didn't know how solution packages related to different versions of the same product I had previously MSI installed. I didn't know what the minimum necessary files were to reconstruct the solution correctly after copying it. I solved all of this ages ago but forgot to post a reminder to myself and encourage other hesitant people to use NuGet.
It turns out that the NuGet packages stand alone inside each solution, so there is no fear of some sort of clash or confusion with other formally installed versions. In fact I have uninstalled many products (NUnit for example) because it's easier to install the package in each project that needs it. The same packages may be duplicated many times over many solutions, but that's not a bother. It turns out that the packages.config files in each project are the minimum needed to copy with the solution. The whole packages folder can be ignored. If you copy a whole solution with no binaries and just the project packages.config files then open it in VS2012 and open "Manage NuGet packages or solution..." there is an easy to miss prompt at the top to * Restore*. This restore processing works as advertised and everything you need is downloaded, unzipped and you're back to normal. Greg K
