“Unable to launch the IIS Express Web server” erro

Question

I receive this error when trying to launch IIS Express from Visual Studio with a project that's configured to listen to an address other than localhost. Visual Studio freezes for about 30 seconds before giving the error "Unable to launch the IIS Express Web server".

I've tried all the solutions posted to similar questions and I think I've done everything correctly. Here are the steps that I have taken:

1. Add the following reservation to HTTP.SYS:

   netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:36899/ user=Everyone

2. Run Visual Studio 2012 as an administrator (technically I don't think I should even have to since I set up HTTP.SYS manually).

3. Disable Windows Firewall.

4. Delete my IISExpress folder in my My Documents folder to ensure the default settings.

5. Allow Visual Studio to create the entry in applicationhost.config for my web project. Then manually edit the config file to change localhost to 192.168.0.100 which is my local IP. Then go back into the project properties in Visual Studio and change localhost to the IP and save the project so that my project is now set to http://192.168.0.100:36899.

I also tried changing the port and repeating the above steps just incase the port was in use for some reason.

I want to make my IIS Express developer instance accessible from my IP on the Internet for remote testing.

Answer 1

I had the same problem with Visual Studio 2012. I managed to resolve it by removing from C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\AppServer\applicationhost.config path unneccessary site entries. Alongwith running my VS2012 as an Administrator. Hope this helps

Answer 2

I had the same issue with my computer having loads of windows updates.

Spent few hours trying to resolve the issue using above answers with no luck.

In past we have different issues due to anti-virus which caused the application to be blocked by it, so thought to try by disabling it.

Answer 3

I spent 1 hour trying every recipe mentioned above. Then out of no where I restarted my computer, and tried again. And everything is fine now.

So please try restarting your computer before trying all the above mentioned solutions. It might help

Answer 4

Delete IISExpress folder in my My Documents folder to ensure the default settings or restore the same to previous version when it was working fine.

Answer 5

I face this issue, All I did was go to the web project Properties -> Web -> In the ProjectUrl I clicked on the "Create Virtual Directory" and my issue was fixed.

Answer 6

I fixed it with the following steps:

• Close Visual Studio
• Run netsh http show urlacl and see if your application http address/port is listed.
• Run netsh http delete urlacl url=[ADDRESS] replacing [ADDRESS] with the Reserved URL shown by the previous command. For example http://+:17560/
• Run VS again (as Admin) then go to web project's Properties -> Web then click on Create Virtual Directory button.
• Now you should be able to run the web project.