UPDATE: I added a GitHub repository and included my updates to the MVC4 Empty, Basic and MvcApplication templates. Feel free to contribute. See in the Download chapter.
So you use Visual Studio 2012, NuGet, you create a new project from the standard MVC 4 template and then you update all packages you need, or click on "Update All" and then "downgrade" one (e.g. jQuery 2.x to jQuery 1.x)?
If you need to update everything and downgrade just one package (in example jQuery), you can use the Package Manager Console and issue these 2 commands (first force the uninstallation of jQuery even if it's needed by other libraries, then install the specific version you need):
Uninstall-Package jQuery -Force
Install-Package jQuery -Version 1.10.2If you want your templates to be always updated, you may want to edit them directly (as usual, do a backup first), so that when you create a new project you won't need to update all the NuGet packages. You may be interested in these 2 locations:
- Templates folder: C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\\Common7\\IDE\\ProjectTemplates\\CSharp\\Web\\1033
- Packages folder: C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft ASP.NET\\ASP.NET MVC 4\\Packages
In the Templates folder you can edit the *.vstemplate file and put the package versions you want. For the javascript files, remember also to update the Scripts\\_references.js file. For the references, remember also to update the *.csproj (project) file. Some Libraries require you to update also the web.config file.
In the Packages folder you need to copy the nupkg file and the folder containing the package (take the packages from a new visual studio solution you create).
This seems complicated but once you updated your favorite template, it'll be a piece of cake to maintain it.
Download
To update your existing Visual Studio 2012 templates, just overwrite them with the files you find in my GitHub repository (do a backup of the originals, just in case).
If your favorite template is not here, sorry about that. I update only the templates I use the most for my projects. Feel free to share your updates (at best commit your changes directly in my github repository).