Visual Studio 2010 and IIS 5.1 debugging issue

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010 with IIS 5.1 but unable to debug my website. The error is:

Unable to start debugging on the web server. The web server is not configured correctly. See help for common configuration errors. Running the web page outside of the debugger may provide further information.

I have spent lot of time on it and googled a lot but find nothing worthy. Please help.

Answer 1

I suggest getting and using IIS Express instead of IIS 5.1.

It is supported on Windows XP.

Answer 2

Make sure that IIS is configured to use Integrated Windows Authentication. Look for the checkbox on the Authentication Method dialog launched from the Directory Security tab of the site properties.

Make sure that HTTP Keep Alives are enabled. You'll find that checkbox on the Web Site tab of the properties dialog, in the connections section.

This one is strange, but it seemed to do the trick for many out there, add http://localhost to the trusted sites in Internet Explorer. To tell the truth, this seems to be a fix for the symtoms, not actually fixing the problem itself, but if it works it works. BTW, you'll have to uncheck the “Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone“ checkbox to add it as a trusted site.

For more information:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa290100

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0y3b8byc%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

http://geekswithblogs.net/TimH/archive/2006/05/29/80002.aspx

Answer 3

I sometimes have the same problem when using VS 2010 and IIS 7. It is most likely a permissions problem.

Are you using a custom application pool for your site? What's the user identity of the application pool?

Either the ASP.NET Worker Process user (IUSR_) or the application pool identity user (if they are not the same) will need to have Read & Execute and probably List Folder Contents permissions. You can set those through the Security tab on the Folder Properties dialog.