ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

• Oct 26, 2009
• 15 Comments
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Have you ever needed to quickly spawn a web server against a local folder to preview a web application? If not, what would you say you do here?

This is actually quite common for me since I receive a lot of zip files containing web applications which reproduce a bug. After I unzip the repro, I need a way to quickly point a web server at the folder and run the web site.

A while back I wrote about a useful registry hack to do just this. It adds a right click menu to start a web server (Cassini) pointing to any folder. This was based on a shell extension by Robert McLaws.

Well that was soooo 2008. It’s almost 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is out which means it’s time to update this shell extension to run an ASP.NET 4 web server.

Obviously this is not rocket science as I merely copied my old settings and updated the paths. But if you’re too lazy to look up the new file paths, you can just copy these settings (changes are in bold).

32 bit (x86)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2010 WebServer]
@="ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here"
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2010 WebServer\command]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\microsoft shared\\DevServer
\\10.0\\Webdev.WebServer40.exe /port:8081 /path:\"%1\""

64 bit (x64)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2010 WebServer]
@="ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here"
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\VS2010 WebServer\command]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\microsoft shared\\DevServer
\\10.0\\Webdev.WebServer40.exe /port:8081 /path:\"%1\""

I chose a different port and name for this shell extension so that it lives side-by-side with my other one.

Of course, I wouldn’t even bother trying to copy these settings from this blog post since I conveniently zipped up .reg files you can run.

What others have said

Lee Englestone Oct 27, 2009 5:25 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Home come I never knew about this Shell extension!?
It sounds very useful indeed.

-- Lee

Andrey Oct 27, 2009 5:42 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

I usually run Visual Studio and open the folder as a web site. Anyway you need to launch VS to view source code of the web site.

Diogo Edegar Mafra Oct 27, 2009 7:05 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Great tip! I do it a lot.

Jorge Oct 28, 2009 12:04 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Very helpful. And I missed it when you first wrote it! Thanks Phil.

Satu Oct 28, 2009 1:01 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Thanks for the zip.

Michael Sanford Oct 28, 2009 1:49 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Very cool trick. Now what's up with that "Delete SVN Folders" shell extension? THAT looks like a huge timesaver! More details please! :)

Peter.O Oct 28, 2009 2:17 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

+1 to that BTW observation by Michael. That "Delete SVN Folders" must be cuter that the current TortoiseSVN "Export" function.

Paul Oct 28, 2009 7:29 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

what would be even cooler is if you could point it at the Zip file without needing to extract it first

Haacked Oct 28, 2009 8:23 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

@Michael @Peter your wish is my command. :) Jon Galloway wrote this extension a long while ago.

Ricardo Oct 28, 2009 10:26 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Thanks! this is very useful.

Dimitry Tech Oct 28, 2009 12:09 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

when is the release date for .net 4.0?

AlexB Oct 28, 2009 4:18 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Combine it with a small vb script to dynamically assign ports and you can run multiple instances of a web server with different apps

Visual C# Kicks Oct 29, 2009 4:05 AM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

Thanks this is great

Scott Isaacs Jul 31, 2010 12:59 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

FWIW, download links don't work (on the 2008 version either). Fortunately I can copy/paste the contents of the REG files. :)

NTWebs Feb 10, 2011 9:40 PM

# re: ASP.NET 4 Web Server Here Shell Extension

OMG this is brilliant, It gets so annoying when you have those zip files and you have to open your visual studio, this will save me time. Thanks very much for sharing.

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