Visual Studio IIS Express hangs on launch, but IIS local works, why?

Question

I run Visual studio 2015 as administrator, start a new project, ASP.NET application, Empty 4.5.2 and then just add a simple html page. When I try to launch using IIS Express, I just get waiting for local host. If I do this under IIS local it works fine.

I have this working correctly on my laptop and did a clean install of windows 10 on my desktop and then reinstalled VS2015, but still get same result. IIS express starts but the web page keeps waiting for local host

I've looked at a number of solutions but have been unable to resolve the problem. I'm a newbie to all of this so would appreciate step by step instructions on how to resolve.

It is a .Net Framework 4.5.2 application.

try to create and run WebForms or MVC project to see how it works and compare with yours. — Ilya Chumakov, Dec 22 '15 at 20:04
asp.net application 4.5.2. Just trying to display a simple html page — DCR, Dec 22 '15 at 20:39
Did you try to remove local IIS Express folder? It is on C:\Users\\Documents\IISExpress. — vzayko, Dec 28 '15 at 11:27
check that your IISExpress instance is not using the same port as your IIS Local (right click project > "Properties" > "Web" > check server settings) — solidau, Dec 29 '15 at 21:33

score 54 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 22 '17 at 07:00

54

Exit Visual studio and delete the (project).vs folder. Restart Visual studio. It should start working.

answered Mar 22 '17 at 07:00

Sunil Patil

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This didn't work for me until I also changed the port and rebuilt the project. – Glen Little Jan 15 '18 at 01:46
Works simply fine. – Janaka Sep 25 '21 at 05:32

Fábio Junqueira · Answer 2 · 2015-12-30T20:58:08.997

You could try to change the port which IIS Express is using by doing the following:

Right click you web project and click in properties
In the web menu, change the project url and specify a custom port, ie: 56000

Save your changes and see if that works!

You can make sure that no other processes are using the port you chose by running the following command:

netstat -na | find "your port number"

ie:

netstat -na | find "56000"

If the port is free, nothing will be outputted to the console.

Matthew Lock · Answer 3 · 2016-11-16T03:46:35.217

4

Sometimes Visual Studio just takes many minutes to load all the required symbols when debugging. Check the status bar of Visual Studio:

Once for some reason IIS Express worked if I changed the browser targeted in Visual Studio to Google Chrome. Simply restarting Visual Studio fixed this for me though.

edited Nov 16 '16 at 03:46

answered Sep 13 '16 at 03:18

Matthew Lock

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For some weird reason, changing startup browser solved my problem. I got IIS Express standard start page even though all configs looked just fine. After finding this answer I tried changing startup browser to IE (from Chrome) and sure enough, everything worked just fine, also after switching back to Chrome as startup browser... – Per T Nov 14 '17 at 11:56

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 06 '19 at 13:22

Solution:
1. Run VS as Administrator. Open your sln, Start debugging, stop and close the VS.
2. Again open the sln (without admin) file and start debugging.
It worked!

Problem:
- My VS2017 was running fine with debugging, until some other tool's installation corrupted it. Then I reinstalled it. When I started debugging/running site, it wasn't even opening first page of site. It was keep loading assemblies forever. I tried many things found on google. It didn't help.
- Finally I tried opening it with Admin and then regular. It solved my problem.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 28 '15 at 11:20

1

Right click on your web Project and click properties
Go to web tab on the right
In the server section, change local IIS to IIS Express

Hope this helps

answered Dec 28 '15 at 11:20

Hussein Khalil

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 28 '15 at 11:49

1

Just right click on HtmlPage1.html in solution explorer and click Set As Start Page. After that run project again.

answered Dec 28 '15 at 11:49

Rahul Nikate

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 02 '16 at 07:09

1

I had same problem and all advices not working. But I run visual studio as administrator and all working now. So, go to shortcut of visual studio, properties, advance..., and check run as administrator.

answered Jun 02 '16 at 07:09

Musketyr

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 30 '15 at 21:04

0

Look into applicationhost.config file under

YOUR_DOCUMENTS_PATH\IISExpress\config\

Localize defaultDocument setting and add your static html page full name (yourpage.html) or use one of the options available if you want to stick to the standards:

   <defaultDocument enabled="true">
        <files>
            <add value="Default.htm" />
            <add value="Default.asp" />
            <add value="index.htm" />
            <add value="index.html" />
            <add value="iisstart.htm" />
            <add value="default.aspx" />
        </files>
    </defaultDocument>

answered Dec 30 '15 at 21:04

E-Bat

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I changed the name of the html file to index.html and still get waiting for local host – DCR Dec 31 '15 at 15:40
Is this html located in root of the web site? – E-Bat Dec 31 '15 at 17:05
I closed Visual Studio and renamed IISExpress to IISExpress_Save and that solved it for me. – Darren Griffith May 15 '18 at 23:25

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 24 '16 at 06:13

0

I think IIS is disabled in your system. Please follow the below steps:

Go to Control Panel
Open Program and Features
On the left side, you will find 'Turn Windows features On or Off', click on it.
Check that IIS is checked with all the subfeatures. I am attaching a screenshot below for your reference.

Make sure all the checkboxes should be ticked.
Now restart your system.

I think this will solve your issue.

answered Sep 24 '16 at 06:13

ankitmvp

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IIS Express is not the same as IIS – balint Oct 16 '17 at 09:54

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 19 '21 at 17:16

0

For me, the solution was to download: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/tcpview find the local port (which was connected to a Microsoft server - strange!) and to "End Process..." in TcpView.

answered Feb 19 '21 at 17:16

Dejan Dozet

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Visual Studio IIS Express hangs on launch, but IIS local works, why?

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