How to fix a port number in asp.NET development server

Question

Yesterday I was writing a stand-alone .html web-page. Every time I viewed it, the file was run in the local host. Thus a port number was assigned by my OS (Windows 8).

Answer 1

I simply right-click over the file in VS2012 and select: 'View in Browser (Google Chrome)'

Doing so in Visual Studio fires up the ASP.net Dev server. It's not Windows that assigns it (nor configures it)

• How to specify a port for ASP.net Dev Server no project/solution to speak of, it's just some file on file system....

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Update: Unsure if this will be a solution for you:

If you click the "wrench" icon of the dev server in your tray, you will see this:

The executable is in: c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\DevServer\11.0> (for VS 2012)

If you run it via cmd line, this will pop (instructions):

So if I ran it via cmd line:

webdev.webserver40 /port:8080 /path:"C:\Users\[my user name]\Desktop" /vpath: "/"

• the dev server will run on the specified port (8080)
• treat my desktop as the "root"
• allowing me to type: http://localhost:8080/htmlpage1.html (this file is in my desktop) in any browser...
• until I stop the instance running...

Not elegant in any way, so.....