Web Tab, Project Properties

The Start Action group enables you to specify which page or process Visual Studio starts when you run the Start command (or press F5 or CTRL+F5).

Current Page

Specifies that Visual Studio will use the default browser to display the page that currently is open in the editor.

Specific Page

Specifies that Visual Studio will run the specified page when you test the Web site, even if you are currently editing another page.

Note
You can also set this value by right-clicking a page in Solution Explorer and then selecting Set As Start Page.

Start external program

Specifies the full path of an alternative program that Visual Studio will run instead of starting the browser. The alternative program must have an .exe file-name extension.

Command line arguments

Specifies command-line options that will be passed to the external program.

Working directory

Specifies the full path of a working directory in which the external program will start. The path must exist.

Start URL

Specifies a starting URL to open. This option is typically used by Web service projects so that you can start a different Web site that will call your Web service.

Don't open a page. Wait for a request from an external application.

Specifies that Visual Studio should start your project in a Web server and wait for another application to make a request. This is useful for debugging Web service applications.

The Servers group enables you to specify which Web server will be used when you test pages.

Apply server settings to all users (store in project file)

Specifies whether server settings should apply to all users of this project or only to you.

Use Visual Studio Development Server

Specifies that Visual Studio will use the Visual Studio Development Server to test serve Web pages. For more information, see Web Servers in Visual Web Developer.

Auto-assign Port

Specifies that Visual Studio should select a random HTTP port on the development computer to send requests to. This HTTP port is used to test the Web application project by using the built-in Visual Studio Development Server.

By default, the Auto-assign Port option is selected. Although the HTTP port is initially chosen at random, Visual Studio tries to use the same port every time that the Web application starts.

Specific port

Specifies the HTTP port number to use to test the Web application project by using the built-in Visual Studio Development Server. You can change this HTTP port number if the port is already being used, or if you want to test the application by using a specific port number.

This can be useful if you are testing a Web service using the Visual Studio Development Server, so that you can specify a fixed port for testing with the localhost server.

Virtual path

Specifies the virtual path of your Web site when you test it using the Visual Studio Development Server. The default is the Web server root, which is indicated by a forward slash (/).

NTLM Authentication

Specifies that NTLM authentication is required for requests to the server. By default, NTLM authentication is turned off.

Selecting this check box helps prevent other users on this computer from accessing your Web site and from using your identity and security permissions to run code.

Use Local IIS Web server

Specifies that Visual Studio will test your application on the local IIS or IIS Express Web server.

Use IIS Express

Specifies that Visual Studio will use IIS Express to test serve Web pages. This is the default. For more information, see Web Servers in Visual Web Developer.

Project URL

Specifies the URL that points to this Web application.

Create Virtual Directory

Creates an IIS virtual directory for the Web application.

Override application root URL

Specifies an alternative path for the application root URL. Use this option if the Web application root is not the root of your project.

Use Custom Web Server

Specifies that Visual Studio will test the application using a remote IIS Web server instead of IIS Express, a local IIS server, or the Visual Studio Development Server.

Server Url

Specifies the URL of the remote IIS Web server.

The Debuggers group enables you to specify which debuggers will be available when you test pages. When a debugger is loaded, it can include debugging engines for different types of code. The options that you select in the Debuggers group determine which debugging engines are loaded.

Note
Each debugging engine that you load requires memory and affects the performance of debugging overall. In general, you should specify only the debugging engines that you need.

ASP.NET

Specifies that the ASP.NET debugger is loaded whenever you start the debugger. Use this debugger to debug the server code or client script in your pages and in any .NET Framework components that are called from your page.

Note
Processes to be debugged must be compiled with debugging information.

If you clear this check box, Visual Studio starts the debugger but does not try to retrieve process information from IIS or the Visual Studio Development Server and make it available to the debugger. However, you can still debug client script in the page.

For more information, see Debugging Web Pages Overview.

Native Code

Specifies that the debugger for native (unmanaged) code is loaded whenever you start the debugger. This option is useful if your Web site calls a component (for example, a COM component) that is written in an unmanaged language, such as C++.

If you clear this check box, you can debug managed code, but the debugger will skip any calls to unmanaged code.

For more information, see Debugging Native Code.

SQL Server

Specifies that the debugger for SQL Server stored procedures is loaded whenever you start the debugger.

Silverlight

Specifies that the debugger for Silverlight is loaded whenever you start the debugger.

Enable Edit and Continue

Edit and Continue allows you to change your source code while your program is in break mode and applies those changes without having to end the debug session and build your program again. You can use Edit and Continue in code-behind class files and stand-alone class files. However, editing inline code in an .aspx page or an .ascx file is not allowed. If you edit the Web.config file while debugging, Visual Studio displays a warning message. Saving changes to the Web.config file stops the debugger from loading old assemblies during an application-domain reset.

For more information, see Edit and Continue, Debugging, Options Dialog Box and How to: Create and Edit Configurations.