Accessing the ASP.NET Web Configuration Tool in Visual Studio 2013

As many of you have noticed, the option to select “ASP.Net Web Configuration Manager” is no longer in Visual Studio 2013 Preview. This is due to the removal of the Visual Studio Development Server (or Cassini) from the product. However, we understand that many people have gotten used to using the Tool, and so here are the steps by which you can still run the manager. Note that these instructions only work for sites running on the .NET Framework 4.0 and above.

1. Open the Command Prompt (not as administrator),
2. In the command line spin up a IISExpress site with the following prompt: “iisexpress.exe /path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles /vpath:”/ASP.NETWebAdminFiles” /port:[port] /clr: 4.0 /ntlm” using the following values for the [param]:
1. [port] – any port you have free in IISExpress (I use 8082 in the example below)
3. This should launch an IISExpress instance of the Configuration Manager Site
   
4. Open your browser
5. In the URL enter the following “http://localhost:8082/asp.netwebadminfiles/default.aspx?applicationPhysicalPath=[appPath]&applicationUrl=/” substituting the [appPath] with the absolute path to the Visual Studio Project folder with the solution file in it.

Congratulations, you now have your ASP.net Web Site Adminstration Tool running as before.