VS2012 + Windows 8 + IE10: Unable to start program 'http://localhost/' The system cannot find the file specified.

Question

Hello,

I know this issue has been seen a lot, but I'm experiencing a new problem. I will list all the solutions I tried before posting this message.

First, I'm using Windows 8 Enterprise RTM and Visual Studio 2012 RTM Premium. My machine is joined to a domain and the domain controllers are Windows Server 2008 R2. I'm trying to debug a web application with IE10.

The problem is when I use a domain account which is the same I was using in Windows 7 + VS2010 and it worked perfectly. When I use that account, I receive the famous message:

 

• I am able to debug with IE10 when I press F5 using a local account that is admin on the machine.
• I am unable to run with IE10 when I press CTRL+F5. I receive the same message.
• I am able to debug with Firefox or Chrome when I press F5.
• I am also able to debug with IE10 when I press F5 using the administrator account of the domain.
• I am able to debug my project if select an external program pointing to iexplore.exe but it does not hit all the breakpoints (ie: in javascript files).
• I tried to edit the registry and set TabProcGrowth to 0 for IE10 and it did not work.
• I am experiencing the same problem with Visual Studio 2010 Premium.

My domain account is in the local administrators group.

I am really out of solutions and I've been struggling for more than 2 days. Can anyone help me please?

Answer 1

I have the same problem. Hopefully MS guys will move quickly on this.

Answer 2

I'm having the same issue but it only seems to happen with IE10.  When Firefox or Chrome is set at the default browser I don't get the error.

Answer 3

I am having the exact same issue with VS2012 and VS2010 on Windows 8. I really hope there is a fix coming for this issue.

Answer 4

I have the same problem but can only get it to work if I enter the 'file specified', starting 'http://' into IE's address bar.

Answer 5

Same problem here. Visual Studio 2010 Premium on Windows 8 RTM.

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Best Regards, Simon de Kraa.

Answer 6

Having the exact same issue and setup (Win8 Enterprise, VS2012 Premium, domain etc).

I'm able to start IE10 (only 64-bit, 32 won't work) and Firefox (haven't tested with other browsers), but not able to hit any break points.

Microsoft...what's happening? Anyone?

EDIT:

Found a workaround (confirms Marc-Andrè Boivin's solution)

In Control Panel / User Accounts / User Accounts, I hit "Manage User Accounts"

1) I added my domain account to the Admistrators Group (it had somehow been moved to to "HelpLibraryUpdaters"...don't know why, but I suspect the Windows 8 installer is to blame!)

2) In Properties for the web Project, specified IE as external program and the url as command line argument as Start Action. Note that I had to specify the 64-bit Version of IE, 32-bit failed (silently). FireFox was also a no-go.

3) Made sure to run Visual Studio 2012 as Administrator. This made me able to launch web applications and hit break points.

4) Extra for Silverlight developers:
Even though Silverlight debugging was enabled in the web project properties, debugging symbols was not loaded during runtime.
To be able to hit any break points in my SL code, I had to manually attach to the IE process from the Debug|Attach to Process... menu option. Once I did that, the debugging symbols got loaded as expected, and I was able to hit my break points.

Hope MS can get a fix out for this issue pretty soon...

Answer 7

I am having the same issues.  It seems to be the exact same scenario.

Answer 8

The work around also works for me. Although it isn't really a solution to the problem. Thanks ToreS

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Scott Hellewell

Answer 9

Hi Marc,

Based on your description, this issue is related to the web app. To resolve this issue, you could post this issue in http://forums.asp.net where asp.net experts live in. Thanks for your understanding.

Best Regards,

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Jack Zhai [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 10

How is this related to the web app? Debugging worked just fine before upgrading from Win 7 / VS 2012 RC to Win 8 / VS 2012 RTM. Nothing has changed in the web app, and Visual Studio not being able to start the browser for debugging, and having to manually attach to a process in SL to get the debugging symbols loaded sounds like a task for the team responsible for the Visual Studio debugging experience.

Answer 11

I cannot see how this is related to the web application. It works on Windows 7, IE9 and Visual Studio 2010 and after upgrading to Windows 8, IE10 and Visual Studio 2010 it no longer works. No changes are made to the web application.

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Best Regards, Simon de Kraa.

Answer 12

Hi all,

Maybe I misunderstood this issue, just to make this issue clearly:

1. Whether all apps have the same issue?
2. Do you mean that you run the same app in the same pc, I mean that you have updated the same PC with different IE and windows and VS?
3. Or just run the app create in windows 7, IE 9 and VS2010, and then move the same app to another PC which has different Environment, it has this issue?

For 1:  if just the web apps have this issue, other apps worked well, I doubt that it is not the VS debugger tool issue. My suggestion is that let the ASP.net expert to repro this issue and check the result.

For 2:  I’m afraid that it is hard for me to repro this issue now, but if we could make sure that all web apps have the same issue when we debug them in VS, if possible, I suggest you can submit this feedback to Microsoft Connect feedback portal: http://connect.microsoft.com, Microsoft engineers will evaluate them seriously.

For 3: Not the Web app expert, but one idea is that you could share me a simple web app created in Windows 7, IE9 and Visual Studio 2010, I try to run it in Windows 8, IE10 and Visual Studio 2010/VS2012 RC and check the result. Please attach your Visual Studio project, you can upload it to the sky driver, and then share the download link in your post.

If there's any concern, please feel free to let me know.

Best Regards,

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Jack Zhai [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 13

We are experiencing the same issue.  When select to run the website in VS2012 it says unable to start program http://localhost:port/......aspx but the asp.net development server is running and if I type the address into IE it does come up with the page.

This is an existing website that as others have said worked fine on Win7, VS2010, but having transfered to Win8 and VS2012 now it is not functioning.

I am downloading Google Chrome now to see if it can get me back up and working.

Answer 14

We are experiencing the same issue.  When select to run the website in VS2012 it says unable to start program http://localhost:port/......aspx but the asp.net development server is running and if I type the address into IE it does come up with the page.

This is an existing website that as others have said worked fine on Win7, VS2010, but having transfered to Win8 and VS2012 now it is not functioning.

I am downloading Google Chrome now to see if it can get me back up and working.

This exact same issue is bothering us at the moment. It is possible to run/debug using Chrome or Firefox but not IE10. Debugging a Silverlight application using Firefox requires one to turn dom.ipc.plugins.enabled option to false from about:config.

Everything worked fine with Windows 7 + Visual Studio 2010. Now with Win 8 + Visual Studio 2012 these hacks are required for debugging.

Answer 15

For 3: Not the Web app expert, but one idea is that you could share me a simple web app created in Windows 7, IE9 and Visual Studio 2010, I try to run it in Windows 8, IE10 and Visual Studio 2010/VS2012 RC and check the result. Please attach your Visual Studio project, you can upload it to the sky driver, and then share the download link in your post.

To reproduce the issue on Windows 8, IE10, Visual Studio 2010:

1. Create a new project: File, New, Project, Visual C#/Web, ASP.NET Web Application.

2. Hit F5.

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Best Regards, Simon de Kraa.

Answer 16

Hi all,

I have posted this on the Connect website as a bug, please vote for it if you are struggling with the same issue.

Visit Connect bug here

Thanks,

John

Answer 17

Like it's been said, the problem is for all web applications even new projects created with the template ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application.

Also, do not forget that it works with some local accounts. VS2012 (and VS2010) under Windows 8 is unable to launch IE10 (possibly 32bits) for an unknown reason when the account is a domain account.

Answer 18

The real problem is with Window 8 with Active Directory accounts. The issue is that IE10 32-bit cannot be launched. If you try to execute C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe from your AD account it will do nothing. Then if you try from a local account or any Microsoft Account it will launch properly. I started looking at the registry to see what is specific for every users but couldn't find what is causing this issue.

Hopefully someone will come with a fix for this because this is very annoying. Even though it works when setting IE10 64-bit as the app to launch and attach to the Silverlight IE, debugging JavaScript doesn't work and it is not very convenient.

Answer 19

Further to Louis-P's comments it appears to only affect AD accounts when connected to a domain controller.

When trying to run IE10 from VS2012 (or VS2010) and connected to the corporate network, I receive the message which everyone else is receiving.  However when I took the machine home and ran using the cached AD account off the network it ran IE10 fine with no messages.

As an aside, when logging in to the cached account, all of the services which have stored passwords/settings (dropbox, outlook etc) all asked for passwords/links again.  It would appear that Windows 8 isn't processing an account which is attached to a domain controller in the same way to a cached AD account.

I hope MS get this sorted very soon as I imagine that most people will be using Win 8/VS2012 with IE10 on a corp network.

Answer 20

As S Ashley mentioned, if you login with the network turned off it works. So what I did was disconnect the Ethernet cable from my PC (Could disable Wi-Fi on a laptop), login, then turn it on and I can still debug as long as I don't logout. You will lose any AD scripts that would run when you login, but at least you can debug.

Answer 21

I wonder what is different in our Active Directory environments than the Microsoft AD? I would have thought they would have run into this problem by now.

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Scott Hellewell

Answer 22

I wonder what is different in our Active Directory environments than the Microsoft AD? I would have thought they would have run into this problem by now.

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Scott Hellewell

Could be that they are running Windows 2012 AD. We cannot really try this scenario.

Answer 23

On the failing machine when logged in with the account in which the failure occurs, what is the output if you go to a command prompt and type:

    Set Home

and hit Enter?

thanks!

Answer 24

Hi Eric,

I get....

HOMEDRIVE=C:

HOMEPATH=\Users\john

Thanks.

Answer 25

Like it's been discussed in the connect issue, it seems that the problem comes from the "homedrive" variable.

When "homedrive" is set to U: (for me), I'm unable to debug. But if I remove all the kix32 scripts we run at logon, my "homedrive" is C: and I can debug normally.

From a command prompt:
set homedrive
HOMEDRIVE=C:

Answer 26

JCorker, where is your IExplorer.exe located?  Is it in c: drive or some other drive?  Thanks.

Answer 27

Hi,

I get C: drive at home. 

At work where we have login scripts and I've been struggling I get,

HOMEDRIVE=F:

HOMEPATH=\

HOMESHARE=\\server.domain\users\john

Internet Explorer is on C yes. 

What is the suggested workaround for this now then, I guess the homedrive is right to be F: in work for me as that's where my documents are.  Any suggestions now we've found this?

Thanks,

John

Answer 28

@JCorker: Are you saying that you see homedrive as C: at home, and you do have the problem there, or that you only encounter this problem at work where homedrive is pointed at your network file share?

We need to know to ensure that the fix we make to  IE is effective for all versions of this issue. Thanks!

Answer 29

Hi Eric,

When homedrive is C: all is well.  When it is network share (F:) I get the unable to start program error.

Sorry for any confusion there.

Thanks,

John

Answer 30

Disabling a home drive has solved my problems.

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Scott Hellewell

Answer 31

My home drive settings are as follows:

HOMEDRIVE=E:
HOMEPATH=\

The E:\ drive is a local drive on my computer. I'm still unable to use Internet Explorer to debug my project (I get the same error as everyone else). Google Chrome does work fine however.

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Val

Answer 32

Hi, Val, is your IE is installed in E:\ drive?  The problem is that if the HOMEDRIVE is not the same as the systemdrive, IE10 will have trouble to be spawned from VS or commandline in windows 8.  

You can see the connect link for the possible workarounds.  You can also create a command script, which sets homedrive to your systemdrive and start VS (devenv) from the script.

Thanks

Xinyang

Answer 33

Hi Xinyang,

Sorry it took so long to respond. I was out of the office. IE is installed on my C: drive. I did change the HOMEDRIVE setting to be C:\ but I'm still getting the same error.

I can see the Virtual IIS server start. It's almost as though VS is going too fast. When receive the error, I can in fact go to http:\\localhost:{port} and see my page, problem is I can't debug.

I am running VS as an Administrator and Chrome has no problems. I guess this is the price you pay for wanting to be "bleeding" edge!  :-)

Any other suggestions?

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Val

Answer 34

I too have suddenly started getting this problem, after a couple of weeks or more with Visual Studio 2012 in debug mode working fine with Internet Explorer 10 whilst logged on as administrator.

In my case I solved the problem by changing Visual Studio 2012 to use Chrome as the browser when debugging.

But why is the error message so uninformative in the first place? The "the system cannot find the file specified" message is one of many examples of Microsoft error messages missing out a crucial bit of information, namely the name and path of the "file specified".  

It's a bit like someone posting a Missing Persons notice but omitting to give a description or the name of the person who is missing.

Answer 35

Hi, Val

I should have said change the homedrive to C: (not C:\) in a visual studio command prompt, then type devenv to start Visual Studio.  Could you check if this works for you? 

Thanks.

Xinyang

Answer 36

Hi, Patrick,

Note taken.  I'll log an issue for the error message's incompleteness.  Could you please also check if the Homedrive environment variable is the problem for you?  And if changing homedrive workaround works? Thanks!

Xinyang Qiu

Answer 37

Xinyang,

No problem. Doing this from the VISUAL STUDIO command prompt DOES work.

Thanks.

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Val

Answer 38

Hello all,

The IE team has now released a fix for this issue through Windows Update.  It is KB 2756872.  This should fix the issues you were all facing launching IE from an ASP.NET project through Visual Studio.  Please make sure that you reboot after the update is installed as the impacted file won't update if it's in use.

I hope this solves the problem for everyone and you no longer have to use the workaround.

Marc

Answer 39

I found some change in the registry about IE:

Under key "ＨＫＥＹ_ＣＬＡＳＳＥＳ_ＲＯＯＴ\Wow6432Node\{0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\LocalServer32"

See the value:  It's changed from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" to  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\ielowutil.exe"

Is it a bug on Windows Server 2012?

Answer 40

Hello

I solved in this way.

1. right click on a aspx page
2. Click the menu item: Browse with
3. Set internal browser as default
4. Remove the previous default browser
5. CLick the button Add  and set %ProgramFiles(x86)%\internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
6. set this choice as the default one.