I have a WinForms application with a bunch of third party references. This makes the output folder quite messy. I'd like to place the compiled / referenced dlls into a common subdirectory in the output folder, bin / lib - whatever - and just have the executables (+ needed configs etc) reside in the output folder.

After some searching I ran into assembly probing (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4191fzwb.aspx) - and verified that if I set this up and manually move the assemblies my application will still work if they are stored in the designated subdirectory like so:

<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <probing privatePath="bin" />
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

However, this doesn't solve the build part - is there any way to specify where referenced assemblies and compiled library assemblies go?

Only solutions I can think of off the top of my head is either post-build actions or dropping the idea and using ILMerge or something.

There has got to be a better way of defining the structure :-)