Creating a Clean, Minimal-Footprint ASP.NET WebAPI Project with VS 2012 and ASP.NET MVC 4

The default WebApi Project template in VS 2012 creates a project with no less than 40 references alone, which include a whole lot of stuff you may not want or need for your Simple API project. Also, the project created includes a morass of script files, images, Nuget Packages, and other supporting items for a fully-functional MVC site, but not needed for all API projects. In fact, there is a good chance your project needs only a fraction of the total.

Creating a Clean, Minimal-Footprint ASP.NET WebAPI Project with VS 2012 and ASP.NET MVC 4