title: Setting up a common nuget packages folder for all solutions when some projects are included in multiple solutions
body: <p>I have been using NuGet to retrieve packages from external and internal package sources, which is very convenient. But I have realized that the packages are by default stored per solution, which is very frustrating when some projects with NuGet references are included in several solutions. Then the references are changed to other solutions package folder which may actually be unavailable to another developer or build machine.</p>
  
  <p>I have seen that there are ways to point out a common package location (perhaps at the project root level, we are using TFS source control) with the release 2.1 of NuGet, see <a href="http://docs.nuget.org/docs/release-notes/nuget-2.1#Specify_%e2%80%98packages%e2%80%99_Folder_Location" rel="noreferrer">release notes</a> . I am using NuGet v2.7</p>
  
  <p>But I have tried to add nuget.config files without seeing any effect of this. Packages are still stored in the solution folder. Is there anything I have missed?
  There seems to be different structures of the xml node to add to the nuget.config file, depending on who is answering that question:
  Schwarzie suggests on <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8620437/how-to-use-nuget-with-more-than-one-solution">another Stackoverflow thread</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;settings&gt;
    &lt;repositoryPath&gt;..\..\[relative or absolute path]&lt;/repositoryPath&gt;
  &lt;/settings&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The release notes for NuGet 2.1 (see link above) suggests this format: </p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;configuration&gt;
    &lt;config&gt;
      &lt;add key="repositoryPath" value="..\..\[relative or absolute path]" /&gt;
    &lt;/config&gt;
  &lt;/configuration&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I don't know which one of these, or any, or both will work in the end. I have tried both at solution level. 
  Can the nuget.config file be placed on TFS project root level, or must it be in the solution directory? It seems that NuGet reads and applies the settings from these files in a certain order, why it would make sense to add them in several levels, where a nuget.config file on solution level would override one on the TFS project root level. Can this be clarified?</p>
  
  <p>Do I need to remove all installed packages before those references will work?
  I would love if someone could provide a step-by-step instruction for moving from solution-specific nuget usage to a common package folder where projects that belong to several solutions can find their required nuget packages.</p>