Attach Debugger to IIS instance

The IIS process is aspnet_wp.exe.

In fact, attaching to the aspnet_wp.exe process is what VS does when you have your project set to use IIS for debugging.

I'm running Windows 7 with IIS Version 7.5 and I also needed to tick the "Show processes from all users" and "Show processes in all sessions" boxes - at the bottom of the "Attach to Process" dialog.

Also I had put my app in a specific App Pool which means you can then see it labeled against the w3wp.exe.

In Visual Studio:

1. Click "Debug" from the menu bar
2. Click "Attach to Process"
3. Check the "Show processes from all users" checkbox in the bottom left corner
4. Select aspnet_wp.exe, w3p.exe, or w3wp.exe from the process list
5. Click "Attach"

Just to clarify Jimmie R. Houts answer…

If you want to debug the web application VS and IIS you can do the following:

1. Host the site inside IIS (virtual directory etc).

2. Then in VS2005 do this:

   • Right Click on Web Project → Properties → Start options → Use Custom Server → Base URL → Enter Site Address as Hosted in IIS.
   • Hit F5 and you will be able to Debug your code

Same works for VS 2008 also.