MSVS include paths in solutions

Why oh why does MSVS 2008 make all paths for all projects relative to the startup project in the solution?

For instance if you have project A as the startup and you want to set include paths and linker paths for project B you would right click B and select properties, etc. Once you navigate to the include paths you begin typing and the stupid intellisense it gives you is relative to the startup project....not the project you are setting up.

This essentially means it is impossible to set correct include paths for non-startup projects unless you open those projects independently and set them up or ignore the path intellisense that pops up and force the path to something different.

What is the point of having a solution if I cannot correctly modify the paths of other projects in the solution?

This is a very annoying problem. Maybe I am doing something wrong? Has anyone else experience this problem?

I have gathered a wealth of knowledge about VS2010 does this stuff, if it helps you any. Unfortunately, VS2008 uses a pretty different system.

Still, I think there was a way to reference the solution directory ($(SolutionDir) or some such) even in VS2005. Start your include paths with that and go relative from there.

Yes you can reference anything you like in the solution using the macros but the intellisense it provides to make the paths easier to type in seems to be based entirely off of the startup project. So I think it is more a question of why the intellisense for the paths is broken or is correct only for the startup project. So many times if I am in project B in solution X and B is not the startup when I go to type in the include path starting with ..\ the intellisense is relative to the make folder of the startup project and not the make folder of project B.