HowTo: Setup IIS7 as development server in Visual Studio 2008

Webdevelopment with Visual Studio is really easy – just hit F5 and you jump into the debugger. VS use (as default) the built-in "ASP.NET Development Server" called "Cassini". But there are some pitfalls if you use this server, because the behavior of the IIS and Cassini are sometimes a bit different and the dev server is much slower! The good news: With few clicks you can debug and deploy your application right on IIS7 (on Vista/Server 2008).

Setup IIS
If you develop under Windows Vista (I have only a german Vista here – sorry)you can use the IIS7 – Win XP users have to use IIS6 (which I will not cover in this blogpost, but the way should be similar).

1. Install IIS 7
System Control -> Programs -> Windows Functions:

If you have not installed IIS7 click on the IIS-service checkbox:

Important for us are the following settings: Add the ASP.NET Feature:

… and for the Visual Studio "integration" you have to install these features:

 

2. Edit Visual Studio Project

*right click* on the project and go to the properties:

Save these settings and now hit F5 – done

Pros- & Cons about using IIS instead of Cassini
I recommand using IIS instead of Cassini, because it´s much faster and it´s more like the real deployment server. Look at these two questions on stackoverflow.com to see what other developers think about it: this link or this link.

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4 Responses

1. 

   Magnus

   May 21, 2009

   Super. Nice guide. Solved all my issues in 2 secs! I just had to translate your german version into english

   Reply
2. 

   Jaap

   August 10, 2009

   Nice, BUT, you can’t use Edit & Continue debuggin when you’ve attached to IIS. Microsoft should allow running IIS as a hosted process so Visual Studio can enable Edit & Continue…

   Reply
3. 

   Mihai S

   January 2, 2011

   Really appreciate it. Been banging my head with this for a while. Seems like there is a great difference between “Web Project” and “Website”

   Reply