ASP.NET What causes: It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application…?

Question

I have an ASP.NET web site. I keep getting the error below in VS 2008. The site works fine from a browser. I have made every folder using IIS manager an ASP.NET app. Why does it

Answer 1

My workaround was to move each folder into its own folder under wwwroot.

Answer 2

I dealed a lot with this error when having more than one web.config in the same virtual web directory / website. It may happen if you make a temporary backup of your website for example. Could you verify it?

Answer 3

This error can occur when you are you redefining stuff in the web.config of your virtual directory that you cannot override. Such as authentication or sessionstate. Try deleting all web.configs in your virtual directories to see if that solves the problem.

Answer 4

You likely have a virtual directory set up as a real site, having a bin directory, aspnet_client and web.config.

Either remove those and run it as a relative path, localhost\subdir\default.aspx, or create a new website in IIS to point directly at it.

Answer 5

I resolved this issue by doing the following,

1. Select your project in Visual Studio and click 'Show all files' under Solution Explorer.
2. Delete the 'obj' folder and recompile.