How do I get Visual Web Developer to use IIS, and not ASP.NET development server?

Question

I want to make sure my local is matching the production environment closely and that means running IIS and not the ASP.NET development server that comes with Visual Web Developer express edition. What is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

In Visual Studio you right-click the project, select Properties then Web and change it to use Local IIS. It seems the process is similar for VWD, but there there is a Properties node you open instead . I don't have VWD installed right now so can't check to see if this method is indeed accurate but the article is recent so I assume that it is.

Answer 2

First make sure you have installed and configured IIS server. To check whether IIS server is installed: Run->inetmgr press enter. To know how to install and configure IIS server check the following Link: http://chalaki.com/install-iis6-windows-xp-professional-sp3-setup-run-csharp-cgi/425/

To develop Website using Visual developer 2008 with IIS instead of "ASP.NET Development Server", In the new website window under "Location" click on "Browse" to see the different Server options including IIS Server. User can select the server as IIS server instead of "File System", then the "Location" option will be "HTTP" instead of "File System".

In Visual developer 2008 under Properties->Start Option->Server->"Use local IIS server" option is not shown, Even though IIS server was installed and configured successfully. the only options shown are "use default server" and " Use custom server with base URL".

So in Visual developer 2008 to run on IIS server(If IIS server is installed), Need do the following:

New Website -> Under Locations Click on "Browse" -> Click on "Local IIS" and then select the "IIS Virtual Directory"(IIS vitual Directory which is directory created by the user while configuring IIS server) -> Open

While Running/debugging, the server which you selected while creating the website, the same server will used to open the website, that is while creating the website if you selected "IIS Server" then the website will be opened though IIS server.

One more thing is, while installing Visual developer 2008 and IIS server, If you installed IIS server after installing Visual studio then you need to do the following before creating new website:

Run ->cmd press enter (then enter the following Command)-> C:\\WINDOWS\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\Version aspnet_regiis -i press Enter then you get message after 3 seconds "ASP.net was installed successfully". (*Version will be v2.0.50727 in most cases)