The Web Application Project […] is configured to use IIS. The Web server […] could not be found.

Question

I have a web project in my solution file that is \"unavailable\" when I open the solution. When I right-click on the web project and reload the project, I get the following

Answer 1

This may help some people in 2020. The main issue is that the IIS settings in the CSPROJ file don't match with the configuration for the machine. For example, if you had the Web Application Project pointing to localhost:12345, and a virtual directory isn't set up on the machine on that port, you'll get this error.

Using VS2019, I had this same issue, and the IIS settings in the CSProj file were being ignored. The reason for this is a new property in the CSProj file called "SaveServerSettingsInUserFile":

    
      
        
          True
        
      
      
    
  

When this is set to TRUE, the IIS/Web server properties are in the

.CSPROJ.User file of the same project name.

This allows individual users of a project to have their own IIS settings, provided this file is not checked into source control.

You can control where the settings are stored using Visual Studio GUI in the properties for the project under "Web", "Apply server settings to all users"

When this is on, the IIS settings are stored in CSPROJ, when off, they are stored in CSPROJ.User