Debugging MVC application in VS2012 attempts to start IIS Express twice

Question

UPDATE

I\'m certain this is a Visual Studio bug with no obvious solution. I\'ve encountered a number of people who have the same exact issue. I ha

Answer 1

This week, I experienced this identical issue: IIS Express starts, but VS complains it couldn't start IIS Express and debugging fails.

I finally resolved the issue by applying the June 2014 hot-fix to IIS Express:

• http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=43380

We (my IT support and I) found this hotfix after stumbling over and following a very unlikely problem. Apparently, MS verified a bug in IISExpress 8.0 which results in it misbehaving if any part of the application name contains the letter combination "bg" (my username begins with bg):

• https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/848945/visual-studio-2012-iis-express-fails-to-start-if-application-name-contains-bg

Note: VS 2013 Update 4 already contains this fix, which may be why some people had success simply by updating to VS 2013.

Some other links we found concerning the issue (you may have to skim a bit to find the topic):

• http://forums.asp.net/t/1953087.aspx?VS+2013+Unable+to+launch+the+IIS+Express+Web+Server
• https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/865116/process-with-an-id-of-id-is-not-running