diff --git a/Help/manual/cmake-properties.7.rst b/Help/manual/cmake-properties.7.rst
index a41d48499..d6618fe89 100644
--- a/Help/manual/cmake-properties.7.rst
+++ b/Help/manual/cmake-properties.7.rst
@@ -255,6 +255,7 @@ Properties on Targets
    /prop_tgt/TYPE
    /prop_tgt/VERSION
    /prop_tgt/VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN
+   /prop_tgt/VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE
    /prop_tgt/VS_DESKTOP_EXTENSIONS_VERSION
    /prop_tgt/VS_DOTNET_REFERENCES
    /prop_tgt/VS_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION
diff --git a/Help/prop_tgt/VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE.rst b/Help/prop_tgt/VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ff987ffb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Help/prop_tgt/VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE
+---------------------
+
+Visual Studio project configuration type.
+
+Sets the ``ConfigurationType`` attribute for a generated Visual Studio project.
+If this property is set, it overrides the default setting that is based on the
+target type (e.g. ``StaticLibrary``, ``Application``, ...).
+
+Supported on :ref:`Visual Studio Generators` for VS 2010 and higher.
diff --git a/Help/release/dev/vs-vcxproj-ConfigurationType.rst b/Help/release/dev/vs-vcxproj-ConfigurationType.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..46d05b43d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Help/release/dev/vs-vcxproj-ConfigurationType.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+vs-vcxproj-ConfigurationType
+----------------------------
+
+* :ref:`Visual Studio Generators` for VS 2010 and above learned a new
+  :prop_tgt:`VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE` target property to specify a custom
+  project file type.
diff --git a/Source/cmVisualStudio10TargetGenerator.cxx b/Source/cmVisualStudio10TargetGenerator.cxx
index a66444217..61d7855f0 100644
--- a/Source/cmVisualStudio10TargetGenerator.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmVisualStudio10TargetGenerator.cxx
@@ -696,43 +696,51 @@ void cmVisualStudio10TargetGenerator::WriteProjectConfigurationValues()
                                  i->c_str(),
                                  1, " Label=\"Configuration\"", "\n");
     std::string configType = "<ConfigurationType>";
-    switch(this->GeneratorTarget->GetType())
+    if (const char* vsConfigurationType =
+        this->GeneratorTarget->GetProperty("VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE"))
       {
-      case cmState::SHARED_LIBRARY:
-      case cmState::MODULE_LIBRARY:
-        configType += "DynamicLibrary";
-        break;
-      case cmState::OBJECT_LIBRARY:
-      case cmState::STATIC_LIBRARY:
-        configType += "StaticLibrary";
-        break;
-      case cmState::EXECUTABLE:
-        if(this->NsightTegra &&
-           !this->GeneratorTarget->GetPropertyAsBool("ANDROID_GUI"))
-          {
-          // Android executables are .so too.
+      configType += cmVS10EscapeXML(vsConfigurationType);
+      }
+    else
+      {
+      switch(this->GeneratorTarget->GetType())
+        {
+        case cmState::SHARED_LIBRARY:
+        case cmState::MODULE_LIBRARY:
           configType += "DynamicLibrary";
-          }
-        else
-          {
-          configType += "Application";
-          }
-        break;
-      case cmState::UTILITY:
-      case cmState::GLOBAL_TARGET:
-        if(this->NsightTegra)
-          {
-          // Tegra-Android platform does not understand "Utility".
+          break;
+        case cmState::OBJECT_LIBRARY:
+        case cmState::STATIC_LIBRARY:
           configType += "StaticLibrary";
-          }
-        else
-          {
-          configType += "Utility";
-          }
-        break;
-      case cmState::UNKNOWN_LIBRARY:
-      case cmState::INTERFACE_LIBRARY:
-        break;
+          break;
+        case cmState::EXECUTABLE:
+          if(this->NsightTegra &&
+             !this->GeneratorTarget->GetPropertyAsBool("ANDROID_GUI"))
+            {
+            // Android executables are .so too.
+            configType += "DynamicLibrary";
+            }
+          else
+            {
+            configType += "Application";
+            }
+          break;
+        case cmState::UTILITY:
+        case cmState::GLOBAL_TARGET:
+          if(this->NsightTegra)
+            {
+            // Tegra-Android platform does not understand "Utility".
+            configType += "StaticLibrary";
+            }
+          else
+            {
+            configType += "Utility";
+            }
+          break;
+        case cmState::UNKNOWN_LIBRARY:
+        case cmState::INTERFACE_LIBRARY:
+          break;
+        }
       }
     configType += "</ConfigurationType>\n";
     this->WriteString(configType.c_str(), 2);
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/CMakeLists.txt b/Tests/RunCMake/CMakeLists.txt
index 0a388c53c..5bef62908 100644
--- a/Tests/RunCMake/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -236,6 +236,10 @@ if("${CMAKE_GENERATOR}" MATCHES "Visual Studio [^6]")
   add_RunCMake_test(SolutionGlobalSections)
 endif()
 
+if("${CMAKE_GENERATOR}" MATCHES "Visual Studio ([^6789]|[6789][0-9])")
+  add_RunCMake_test(VS10Project)
+endif()
+
 if(XCODE_VERSION AND NOT "${XCODE_VERSION}" VERSION_LESS 3)
   add_RunCMake_test(XcodeProject -DXCODE_VERSION=${XCODE_VERSION})
 endif()
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/CMakeLists.txt b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..91baae7eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5.0)
+project(${RunCMake_TEST} NONE)
+include(${RunCMake_TEST}.cmake)
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/RunCMakeTest.cmake b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/RunCMakeTest.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cc2cc2e2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/RunCMakeTest.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+include(RunCMake)
+run_cmake(VsConfigurationType)
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/VsConfigurationType-check.cmake b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/VsConfigurationType-check.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4690970a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/VsConfigurationType-check.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+set(vcProjectFile "${RunCMake_TEST_BINARY_DIR}/foo.vcxproj")
+if(NOT EXISTS "${vcProjectFile}")
+  set(RunCMake_TEST_FAILED "Project file ${vcProjectFile} does not exist.")
+  return()
+endif()
+
+set(propertyFound FALSE)
+file(STRINGS "${vcProjectFile}" lines)
+foreach(line IN LISTS lines)
+  if(line MATCHES "^ *<ConfigurationType>(.*)</ConfigurationType>$")
+    set(propertyFound TRUE)
+    set(expectedValue "MyValue")
+    set(actualValue ${CMAKE_MATCH_1})
+    if(NOT (${actualValue} STREQUAL ${expectedValue}))
+      set(RunCMake_TEST_FAILED "ConfigurationType \"${actualValue}\" differs from expected value \"${expectedValue}\".")
+      return()
+    endif()
+  endif()
+endforeach()
+
+if(NOT propertyFound)
+  set(RunCMake_TEST_FAILED "Property ConfigurationType not found in project file.")
+  return()
+endif()
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/VsConfigurationType.cmake b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/VsConfigurationType.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a73dfe8c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/VsConfigurationType.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+enable_language(CXX)
+add_library(foo foo.cpp)
+set_target_properties(foo PROPERTIES VS_CONFIGURATION_TYPE "MyValue")
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/foo.cpp b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/foo.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2fb55eed6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/VS10Project/foo.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+void foo() { }