I'm now developing on Visual Studio 2008 on a 64-bit OS (Windows Server 2008 64-bit).
While the apps I write are 64-bit capable, as is IIS7, the built-in ASP.NET Development Server (aka Cassini aka WebDev.Webserver.exe) runs as 32-bit.
This brings up a plethora of issues, such as:
- 32-bit and 64-bit applications have separate HKLM\Software registry homes
- There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the SQL Server Client Network Utility
- Other fun surprises I haven't discovered but I'm sure will spring up
While I am finding workarounds for most of this, I have to ask...
Does anyone who has played with the Visual Studio 2010 preview bits on 64-bit architecture know if the development web servers can handle 64-bit, and if so, are there options for which mode to run it in? (Like a checkbox in the project properties, for instance)
Full source code for a direct replacement for VS2008/2010 dev servers is available at http://cassinidev.codeplex.com. You can compile to x64 to support your requirements.
32 bit IDE and related things make it easier to develop.
When you start to test and deploy further, such as x64, IIS is a better choice.
Here is x64 built version of cassini web server (only binaries for VS2008 and VS2010).
I just went to http://cassinidev.codeplex.com/, and built the source code in x64 mode.
Resulting binaries worked for me, when I replace them as stated here: http://cassinidev.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Visual%20Studio%202008%2f2010%20Development%20server%20drop-in%20replacement&referringTitle=Documentation
You can download binaries here:
https://sites.google.com/site/csharpstuff1/CassiniDevx64.zip?attredirects=0&d=1
Looks like this guy took a similar approach to using Reflector and re-compiling as 64 bit:
http://codeka.com/blogs/index.php/2007/06/18/64_bit_webdev_webserver_exe
I haven't found anything that suggests the story will be different in VS2010, but fingers crossed.
There's a third-party product called UltiDev Cassini that advertises a 64bit version. It's free and redistributable; that may solve your needs.
Information here: http://ultidev.com/Products/Cassini/CassiniDevGuide.htm
