IISExpress 8 Cannot read configuration file redirection.config

Question

I\'m running Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) with IISExpress8 and when navigating to

c:\\Program Files (x86)\\IIS Express>iisexpress.exe

i

Answer 1

Visual Studio will only report the filename it looks for, not the full path. The problem for many users is that the IISExpress with the redirection.config can exist in multiple paths, including a OneDrive path which may not be synced.

To figure out exactly what file Visual Studio attempts to open, use the Microsoft (SysInternals) tool ProcMon. It lists all files and resources Windows tries to access. Add a filter for "Path contains redirection.config" and reproduce the problem in Visual Studio. Now you will see the actual path it tries to use.

In my case I multiple IISExpress folders. One that was synced to OneDrive and another one that was local. Visual Studio tried to access the OneDrive folder which was not synced to local disk, and thus it failed.