How can I get "Copy to Output Directory" to work with Unit Tests?

The standard way to do this is by specifying the deployment items in the .testrunconfig file, which can be accessed via the Edit Test Run Configurations item in the Visual Studio Test menu or in the Solution Items folder.

All three answers are correct, depending on your needs.

Adding files to deploy in the .testrunconfig (.testsettings in VS2010) will copy all of those files to every test output folder, even for unrelated tests run in isolation. If you run one test, all the test data files listed in the deployment section of .testssettings will be copied to the test output folder.

In my tests I need to copy an expected XML file to the test output folder to compare with the actual test output XML. I use the DeploymentItem attribute to only copy the XML file related to the test(s) being run. In VS2010 I had to enable deployment in the .testsettings file (but not add any paths) and then reference the XML file path relative to the TestProject in the DeploymentItem.

Hope this helps.

You can specify deployment attribute like an example shown below; Also you need to set "Content" & "Copy if newer" property ( there is no documentation on the later settings, but you have set those to make it work.

[TestMethod]
[DeploymentItem("mytestdata.xml")]
public void UploadTest()
{



}

I had to turn on "Enable Deployment" under Test -> Edit Test Settings -> Local -> Deployment for the [DeploymentItem] attribute to work.