diff --git a/Directory.Build.props b/Directory.Build.props
index 4f26d9fcf..5e26f84ed 100644
--- a/Directory.Build.props
+++ b/Directory.Build.props
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@
     <IsSourceProject Condition="'$(IsSourceProject)' == '' and
                                 '$(IsTestProject)' != 'true' and
                                 '$(UsingMicrosoftTraversalSdk)' != 'true'">true</IsSourceProject>
-    <!-- Prevent generating docs xmls from triple slash. Use the commited xml files instead. -->
+    <!-- Prevent generating docs xmls from triple slash by default. Use the commited xml files instead.
+         Individual projects that want to generate docs from triple slash can set this to true. -->
     <GenerateDocumentationFile>false</GenerateDocumentationFile>
   </PropertyGroup>
 
diff --git a/Directory.Build.targets b/Directory.Build.targets
index 00aaccab0..b5ae0b1f9 100644
--- a/Directory.Build.targets
+++ b/Directory.Build.targets
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
 
   <ItemGroup Condition="'$(IsSourceProject)' == 'true'">
     <!-- Ensures docs xmls get copied to the artifacts bin output folder. -->
-    <None Include="$(XmlDocumentationFilePath)" CopyToOutputDirectory="PreserveNewest" />
+    <None Include="$(XmlDocumentationFilePath)" CopyToOutputDirectory="PreserveNewest" Condition="'$(GenerateDocumentationFile)' == 'false'" />
     <AssemblyAttribute Include="System.CLSCompliantAttribute" Condition="'$(CLSCompliant)' == 'true'">
       <_Parameter1>true</_Parameter1>
     </AssemblyAttribute>
@@ -86,7 +86,9 @@
   </ItemGroup>
 
   <!-- Include docs xmls in the final packages. -->
-  <Target Name="AddDocumentationFileForPackaging" AfterTargets="DocumentationProjectOutputGroup">
+  <Target Name="AddDocumentationFileForPackaging"
+          AfterTargets="DocumentationProjectOutputGroup"
+          Condition="'$(GenerateDocumentationFile)' == 'false'">
     <ItemGroup>
       <DocumentationProjectOutputGroupOutput Include="$(XmlDocumentationFilePath)" />
     </ItemGroup>