An absolutely great feature added to one of the more recent visual studio (8 or 9 maybe?) is the possibility to let a
project-file(vcproj) use a template-file(vsprops in a relative path location). The template files exists in the
source-code tree just like the project files so they are typically version controlled as well and belongs to your projects.

This is not the same thing as project template used on New Project-> creation which is a different thing.

A template is a separate file where you typically can set such things as preprocessor definitions, pre/post build
events, link options, output location etc. It's used to hold common settings for interdependant projects. The project
"inherits" the template file. Stuff in the template file is "read-only" or hidden in the project if the projects
settings is viewed/edited.

If a template is used, items existing in the template is used before the same one in the project. So if there is a
preprocessor definition in the template it will be at the start and the project one will be concatenated after at the
compiler command-line.

A simple variant for overriding preprocessor and linkoptions(or concatenate the project line after the template one)
would go a long way.

Very powerful these days when there are typically many projects with interdependancy.