I just deployed an asp.net mvc 3 web application to AppHarbor but it failed:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(3932,5): error MSB3541: Files has invalid value "<<<<<<< HEAD". Illegal characters in path. [D:\temp\q5cmde4m.uk1\input\MyProject\MyProject.csproj]
This happened after I opened the project with Visual Studio 2012 (the application was created with VS2010).
Try to search the entire solution for the value and remove it from where it occurs, and then delete the obj folder from your project. When you build again it should work.
The obj folders are hidden in Visual Studio. You can see them with a file explorer.
Delete the obj folder within your project and it will fix the issue.
though it is very old question but I would like to add an answer here.
when you work with multiple developer in visual studio you should git ignore obj folder, .suo,.sln etc which is only holding the visual studio information user based.
refer to this SO question
Ok this might be helpful to someone else.
in my case my .vbproj file and some form files somehow had the last lines of its code truncated, I fixed this by restoring this missing part of the code (around the last 10 lines were missing) from a previous backup of the same project.
The other files got corrupted in a simillar way and were fixed by restoring the missing parts of the files from the backed up ones on a text editor (notepad)
After getting this the project loaded without issue.
Delete both obj and bin folder it will fix the issue, which in my cas its been done and it was causing when create pull request from remote repository !!
Yes, it is about merging conflicts. Usually Visual Studio highlights most of the errors with file paths. However, it does miss some files.
All you have to do is REMOVE the "obj" an "bin" folder from your solution.
If you are in Visual Studio, you have to select "Show All/Hidden files" as "obj" folder is hidden, and then delete it.
You can also delete it by going to your directory where your project is stored e.g C:/Users/username/source/repos/project/ (can be different in your case).
I'm running Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) with IISExpress8 and when navigating to
c:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express>iisexpress.exe
it says:
Filename: redirection.config
Error: Cannot read configuration file
Any ideas where to start?
I can't find anything...
I had a similar issue to #Myles J but renaming %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config didn't work. What I had to do was the following:
Close Visual Studio.
Rename the %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config directory.
Start Visual Studio again. The %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config directory will be recreated with the default config files.
Copy the original applicationhost.config file over the autogenerated one.
Before anyone asks: the permissions on the folders were identical, the read-only flag was not set on the folder or its files, and I didn't modify applicationhost.config in any way.
After installing IIS Express, copy all files from
C:\Program Files\IIS Express\config\templates\PersonalWebServer
to
%userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config
Right click on your project file and Edit the project file and remove the URL from IISUrl and reload your project then it will work
I have just resolved this. It is a strange solution but it worked for me. Here are the steps I took:
Navigate to the folder containing the local IISExpress config files (normally My Documents>IISExpress>config on Windows7).
Find the applicationhost.config file. Rename it to something different e.g. applicationhost2.config.
Navigate to your web project in Visual Studio (I was using VS 2012). Right click on the web project and select Use IISExpress. Run the project. It should fail due to the renaming of the config file.
Change the name of the configuration file back to application.config. Ensure "Use Local IIS Web Server" is selected in the web project settings. Run the solution.
This worked for me.
If you do:
C:\Users\”username*****”\Documents\IISExpress\config
You find these file
applicationhost.config
aspnet.config
redirection.config
Delete above 3 file and then open the project.then the problem is solved. I tried, its working fine.
I have the exact same issue with Visual Studio 2013 on Windows 8.1
I map My Documents folder to SkyDrive, so the IISExpress folder was marked as "Online-only". Once I marked it as "Available offline" everything worked.
Visual Studio will only report the filename it looks for, not the full path. The problem for many users is that the IISExpress with the redirection.config can exist in multiple paths, including a OneDrive path which may not be synced.
To figure out exactly what file Visual Studio attempts to open, use the Microsoft (SysInternals) tool ProcMon. It lists all files and resources Windows tries to access. Add a filter for "Path contains redirection.config" and reproduce the problem in Visual Studio. Now you will see the actual path it tries to use.
In my case, I have multiple IISExpress folders. One that was synced to OneDrive and another one that was local. Visual Studio tried to access the OneDrive folder which was not synced to the local disk, and thus it failed.
In some situations simply renaming/deleting the applicationhost.config file isn't enough since VS won't always recreate it for you. I believe the following will fix it under all circumstances:
Close Visual Studio.
Make sure there are no IIS Express processes running, then delete C:\Users\XXXX\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config (where XXXX is your Windows username).
On command line, execute c:\Program Files\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe. This will recreate the necessary configs. Press 'Q' straight away to end the process.
Open Visual Studio again and Start/Debug your web project. Everything should now be working.
Backup files at local IISExpress folder. It can be found at: C:\Users\”username*****”\Documents\IISExpress\config
Go to the location:
C:\Program Files\IIS Express\config\templates\PersonalWebServer
Copy the required files from this directory to the local IISExpress folder.
It worked for me after I copied over the files:
applicationhost.config
aspnet.config
redirection.config
In my case the 'My documents' folder for my work laptop was mapped to a network share. So when the work network was not available I was not able to open my solution.
Change:
These will have the value of my docs in network share. Change this to local
I. Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Personal
II. Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal
For eg:
Old value: \networkdrive\c$\Users\profile\Documents
New value: C:\Users\profile\Documents
See:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chiranth/2015/04/01/error-while-runningstarting-a-website-under-iisexpress-in-visual-studio/
The issue is that the files in C:\Users\"Your Username"\Documents\IISExpress\config are encrypted.
Open this folder, Select all the files, Right click and select properties,
Click advanced, deselect "Encrypt contents to secure data, Click okay, click apply.
That will fix it.
Using Visual Studio 2013
I had to stop visual studio rename the whole config directory, Documents > IISExpress> Config then start a new web project, which fails but it recreates the config directory, then I rebooted and launched visual studio and everything worked!
I noticed this problem after copying a project between 2 computers, perhaps it was caused by a duplicate IISExpress port or something trivial.
Using VS2013 / Windows 7
Close solution. Open Windows Explorer and right-click on "My Documents\IISExpress\config" directory and select "Decrypt". Be sure "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" is selected. Reopen VS solution.
In my case it happened when IISExpress was still active from a previous VS session and new instance of VS was run.
The solution was to stop (or kill) IIS Express instance.
Fix was really simple for me >> Restart Visual Studio
My setup:
Visual Studio 2015
Web projects use local IIS 8.5
I occasionally experience what I believe to be a VS bug where it converts some projects to use IISExpress (this is fixed by deleting the folder created in /This PC/Documents). This might be related.
You don't need to close Visual Studio or rename anything.
Open properties for %userprofile%\Documents
Select Security > Advanced, change owner to yourself (again if you are already owner).
Select "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" and "Replace all child object permission entires with inherited permission entires from this object".
Ok.
For me, It's a simple lack of permission either give everyone permission
to "%userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config" this folder or Open VS in Admin mode
for me was removing the file Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config
Closing visual studio > Open > Debug
Thanks for the previous answer help go straight to the issue
After trying to solve an issue with a quick fix of changing IIS express inside visual studio from integrated to classic pipeline , I ended up not being able to use IIS express at all. I tried all techniques above...
I could not rename , copy the file. Uninstall of IIS express and re-install did not work.
I FINALLY downloaded the latest version of WebMatrix and installed IIS express 8, that did not work, but at least then i was able to finally delete the old directory and then I recreated itself.....
NOT FUN AT ALL.
I resolved this (with vs2013 and windows 7) by going to Documents > IISExpress> Config and renaming the application.config. After that, I restarted visual studio and opened my project and it worked.
I ran into this issue while trying to open another developer's solution after installing VS2013 (Update 3 RC). After following the advice here and deleting/renaming/etc. the config folder, VS re-created the files in the wrong location. It created nested config folders:
C:\Users[user]\Documents\IISExpress\config\config
I moved everything from ...\config\config into ...\config, and it worked as expected.
I found that deleting one of the sites from the applicationhost.config file resolve this problem for me.
I used the following command from the %ProgramFiles(x86)%\IISExpress directory:
appcmd list site
then
appcmd delete site rogueSiteName
Especially there was a site name with a bracketed number suffix (e.g. "MySite(1)") that I deleted. I'm not sure yet if VS2013 just had an issue with the brackets or that two sites pointed to the same directory. Either way deleting it made VS happy again.
Background
I had been struggling with this issue for a couple of days and nothing seemed to help - not even the instructions given in the top answers here.
I had also tried moving the config folder as mentioned in http://www.iis.net/learn/extensions/introduction-to-iis-express/iis-80-express-readme. But although VS2013 recreated the directory structure and files in the new location the errors continued and running appcmd showed that it was still pointing at the old location by default.
Credits
Credit for where I found the commands to use goes to http://gyorgybalassy.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/cleaning-up-iis-express-configuration/
For ASP.Net Core just access your Properties section, then make a modification and save it.
Example: I modified the SSL port
You will get a notification that your launchsettings.json was modified. Accept that and you're good to go.
If it is ASP.NET Core project
Just try to change iis port in file launchSettings.json by path iisSettings:iisExpress:applicationUrl
It's 2020, I am reporting the same problem in Visual Studio 2019.
Cause: Multiple VS instances open with different web app (Blazor in my instance).
Solution: Close all VS instances and re-open the solution that you want to run.
On IIS 10 Express. Make sure that Visual Studio (VS) is turned off.
I first found out that %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config\ was not working.
I first thought IIS Express had clashed with IIS from the windows OS.
I uninstalled it, yet no changes, then I uninstalled IIS 10 Express that was installed with VS 2019 through the control panel.
Then I went ahead to discover that this file is saved at the C:\Users\username\OneDrive\Documents\IISExpress, associated with one drive storage, so I advise you copy %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config\ and paste in your windows explorer navigation to find directory.
go to one directory higher, and/or rename the config folder. Restart your VS and run the project again.
Mine was caused by OneDrive. Apparently my documents folder is being synced to it.
What I did is changed the location of the documents folder through regedit and navigated to this path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders
and then changed the value of Personal
from: C:\Users\my username\OneDrive\Documents
to C:\Users\my username\Documents
After that I restart my computer and I was able to create a VS project.
I have the same issue,
First time, i think Visual Studio not permission access to %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config so i run Visual Studio with Administrator, but it not working.
I try all answer above but still the error!
Finally, i look internet, i see my onedrive is stopping, i enable and sync data. Restart computer and worked.
I'm using a Makefile project in Visual Studio 2012 express just fine. However, regardless of the Build Command specified, Visual Studio always makes an 'obj' folder containing empty subfolders obj\Win32\Debug and obj\Win32\Release.
To reproduce the problem, simply create a "Visual C++ - General - Makefile Project" and use a DOS command like 'dir' in the Build Command Line. As soon as you build, the empty obj\Win32\Debug folder will show up.
I can simply skip these in my Mercurial ignore file but it'd be nice to find a fix. Anyone know how to make Visual Studio not generate these empty folders?
Found a trick: to set the intermediate output directory on an existing directory. I modified the project file by hand and added this:
<IntermediateOutputPath>$(ProjectDir)</IntermediateOutputPath>
inside the configuration PropertyGroup. I used the project directory, which obviously already exists. No more useless obj directory!
The obj folder represents VS' own metadata about your project for intellisense support and designer support (for WF/WPF apps). For the most part you can ignore the folder completely without issue.
On occasion though this data can become corrupt and cause VS to show invalid Intellisense options and the workflow/WPF designer can cause errors. Closing VS and deleting the obj folder will quickly resolve this though.
In visual studio 2010, when publishing a website, it seems that empty folders are not being published.
I am quite sure that this behavior were introduced in vs2010. I cant find it documented anywhere, not sure if I should call it a feature or a bug... Anyway, is it possible to revert to the old behavior as I wish to keep my folder structure on the production server.
This is actually a limitation of vs2010 as reported on the Microsoft connect site
http://vishaljoshi.blogspot.com/2007/11/wdp-does-not-publish-empty-folders.html
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/546356/publish-deploy-does-not-deploy-empty-folders
There was a bug report to Microsoft about this and they said that they would not fix it.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/546356/publish-deploy-does-not-deploy-empty-folders
Too bad. Because it used to work in Visual Studio 2008.
Add a dummy file like dummy.txt to the directory and then the directory will be created.
Note that it is not necessary to actually deploy the dummy file. It only needs to exist as part of the project in the build environment.
The Empty folder doesn't have any memory value so if you want to add your folder's into your published folder then simply add any item(e.g. text File) into it and set the "Copy to output directory" = Copy always or Copy if Newer this will resolve you problem
We use subversion so we have subfolders named _svn in our solution. Doing a Find in Files returns strings from these subfolders.
Is there any way to tell Visual Studio to ignore these files?
From "Find in Files", in "File Types" or "Look at these file types", you can use:
!*\ExcludeFolder\*
Example:
!*\bin\*;!*\obj\*;!*\.*;!*\ExcludeFolder\*
What you can do is to setup a set of folders that will be used for searching. In Find and Replace window, on the right hand side of "Look In" input you have a "Choose Search Folders" option where you can setup those sets of folders.
Just remember to turn off "Include sub folders" options if you have added root project folder.
If you don't have hundreds of folders this solution should work.
Never had an issue with the global find until we moved to Visual Studio 2017 and started with Angular + .net Core applications... (mostly problems with the HUGE node_modules folder being searched)
I found that using the MSBuild exclusion property DefaultItemExcludes is working fine to exclude from global find in Visual studio 2017..
I now by default open up the project file (.csproj) for a new core project in VS2017 and adjust the property as follows to exclude the node_modules (sometimes I add the wwwroot too):
<DefaultItemExcludes>$(DefaultItemExcludes);node_modules\**</DefaultItemExcludes>
See also
https://github.com/dotnet/cli/issues/7525 , there they advise to prepend the folders to exclude and seem to use a forward slash instead of backward slash, like this :
<PropertyGroup>
<DefaultItemExcludes>node_modules/**;$(DefaultItemExcludes)</DefaultItemExcludes>
</PropertyGroup>
Hope this helps anyone experiencing issues with VS2017 global find / search .
I had this problem when moving to Windows 10 using Visual Studio 2015 and TortoiseSVN. Previously the .svn folders were all hidden so did not appear in search results. To solve this I simply went to the folder properties in Windows Explorer and checked the 'Hidden' attribute for the .svn folder. After refreshing the folder view in Visual Studio the .svn folder no longer appeared and is ignored when using Find!
Instead of searching for files in a directory (your solution's directory, in this case), you could limit your search to the files that are part of the project or the solution. Those in the _svn directories will thus be ignored.
I found in Visual Studio 2017 especially when using Angular Cli that the generated javascript files or other build files can be added to your project sometimes unknowingly. This can cause several headaches including adding a bunch of files to the searches and really slowing things down, especially intellisense because it is searching all of the generated files on top of the source files.
The easiest way I have found to correct this is to simply right click on the build folder (i.e. {Project}/dist) and select Exclude from Project. This will remove the folder from the project but the generated contents will still be available for runtime, it is just hidden from the UI.
If you need to still see the files, you can show hidden directories and files by selecting Show all Files or
click on the Icon:
on the top of the Solution Explorer.
Basically you want to exclude all build folders from your project/solution.
I don't think you can set this (after all, you are asking for "Entire Solution" search), but often you can remove the folder from the project / hide the directory in filesystem (for Web Site project type).
If you are not using VS2019 or VS Code (for which the solution has already been found in other answers), as a workaround you can use the search in Far Manager, it supports masks to exclude certain files or folders from the search.