# 8.3. Opening and Closing of Projects

KDevelop is by default configured to open the last project loaded when starting. This allows a fast start, but you may want to change that to just start the IDE without any project. To prevent the default behavior, disable the "Load last project" option in the KDevelop Setup dialog.

To open another project, select "Open" from the "Project" menu or press the "Open Project" button on the toolbar. In case you've got another project currently open, this will be closed. If your current project then contains files that aren't saved, you are asked to save all changed files. Thereby, you can select which file to save and which you want to close without saving, or to save all at once.

Then you get an "Open Project" dialog, where you can change to the directory containing the project file to be loaded. KDevelop project files have the *.kdevprj mime-type which is also displayed by a project icon. Select the project file and press "Open". When loading a project, the Class Browser scans all files and builds the initial classtree, so you can start working on the project by using the Class Browser directly.

Another comfortable way to open a project is to select the project file in the KFM, the KDE File Manager. This will start KDevelop with loading the selected project file. You could as well open a project by commandline, entering `kdevelop projectname.kdevprj`.

When closing KDevelop, your project file will be saved automatically and the IDE detects if you have changed any project files. Then you will be asked to save any changes before exiting. The available options for closing are the same than for closing a project before loading another.