How to: Create File System Web Site Projects

In a file system Web site project, you put the files for your application into a folder on a local computer or on a computer that is accessible on your network. Because you do not require Internet Information Services (IIS) to create or test file system Web site projects, they are useful for developing locally on your computer. For more information, see File System Web Site Projects.

To create a file system Web site

1. In Visual Studio, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Web Site (do not click Project).

2. In the New Web Site dialog box, if the version of the .NET Framework that you want to target is not selected, select the version that you want to target.

   

   You must select a .NET Framework version before you select a template, because the .NET Framework version that you select determines which templates are available.

   Note

   In order to target any version of the .NET Framework earlier than 4, you must have the .NET Framework 3.5 installed.

3. Select the template for the type of Web site that you want to create.

4. In the Web Location list, click File System, and then enter the path and folder where you want to create the Web site.

   Note

   You can specify either a local path or a UNC path to a different computer on your network. If you specify a path to a different computer, you must have sufficient permissions to be able to read and write to the target location.

5. If you prefer to browse to an existing location, do the following:

   1. Click Browse.

   2. In the Choose Location dialog box, click the File System tab.

   3. In the tree, select the folder that you want to use, or type the path in the Folder box.

   4. To create a new folder, select the location, click Create New Folder, and then type a name for the new folder.

   5. Click Open to return to the New Web Site dialog box.

6. Click OK.

   Visual Studio creates the site, opens a default page in the page designer, and displays the folder in Solution Explorer.

   Note

   If the path you specified already contains files, Visual Studio prompts you to specify a different location, open the existing Web site, or create the Web site anyway. In the last case, the files that are created with the Web site overwrite any files with the same name that are already in the folder.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Specify the Web Server for Web Projects in Visual Studio

Concepts

Types of Web Site Projects in Visual Studio

File System Web Site Projects

.NET Framework Multi-Targeting for ASP.NET Web Projects

Other Resources

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects in Visual Studio