Debugging Preparation: ASP.NET Web Applications

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

The ASP.NETWeb site template creates a Web Form application. When you create a Web site using this template, Visual Studio creates the default settings for debugging. In the Project Properties dialog box, you can specify whether you want the Web page to be a startup page. When you start debugging an ASP.NETWeb Site with these default settings, Visual Studio starts Internet Explorer and attaches the debugger to the ASP.NET worker process (aspnet_wp.exe or w3wp.exe). For more information, see System Requirements.

To create a Web Forms application

  1. On the File menu, choose New Web Site.

  2. In the New Web Site dialog box, select ASP.NETWeb Site.

  3. Click OK.

To debug your Web form

  1. Set one or more breakpoints in your functions and event handlers.

    For more information, see Breakpoints and Tracepoints.

  2. When a breakpoint is hit, step through code inside the function. Observe the execution of your code until you isolate the problem.

    For more information, see Stepping and Debugging Web Applications and Script.

Changing Default Configurations

If you want to change the default debug and release configurations created by Visual Studio, you can do so. For more information, see How to: Set Debug and Release Configurations.

To change the default debug configuration

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the Web site, and select Property Pages to open the Property Pages dialog box.

  2. Click Start Options.

  3. Set Start Action to the Web page that should be displayed first.

  4. Under Debuggers, make sure ASP.NET debugging is selected.

    For more information, see Property Pages Settings for Web Projects.

See Also

Debugger Settings and Preparation
Debugger Basics
Debugger Security
Debugging Managed Code