Visual Studio | ASP.NET Configuration error

"Special characters in the path may be the problem, according to the posts." as Posted above by Dave Swersky

THIS worked perfectly for me! I had a special character ("#") in my folder path I removed this and removed spaces for good measure! I was getting the error "Tool has timed out" among other errors when accessing the WSAT(Web site administration tool) from the ASP.NET configuration menu item.

I saw a post somewhere else that said the problems was solved when the default browser was changed to Internet Explorer. I have been using Firefox and have the exact same problem. When I changed the default browser to IE, the configuration page came up with no problem. But it won't work twice in a row without going in and setting the default browser back to IE each time. When I go back in to Program Access and Defaults, "Use by current browser" is selected. I have to reselect IE, and then it will work one time.

Judging by the Connect site, this error has been reported and is not well understood:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/118567/an-error-was-encountered-please-return-to-the-previous-page-and-try-again

Special characters in the path may be the problem, according to the posts.

This is what worked for me.

I'm using Visual Studio 2010 trying to create the membership role. I was trying to use the ASP.NET Configuration in Visual Studio.

Set the 'Default Browser' to Internet Explore.

To do this:

1. Right click on one of the .aspx pages you have under "Solution Explorer".

2. Select "Browse With..."

3. Select Internet Explore and Click on Set as Default.

4. Close the box.

5. Go back and click on "ASP.NET Configuration"

6. This will automatically open Internet Explorer.

Problem Solved :D

I guess what I was doing wrong was using Firefox as the default browser with Visual Studio. I'm guessing Visual Studio works good together with Internet Explorer since Momma and Daddy made them together (awww how cute)

The issue might be related to an application path that has spaces. After googling I managed to bypass the issue by appending the application path to the url manually ie.

http://localhost:{your_port_here}/asp.netwebadminfiles/default.aspx?**applicationPhysicalPath={path_to_your_application}&applicationUrl=/**

As a firefox user, I closed firefox then executed the "ASP.NET Configuration" option in VS2010. It automatically opens firefox (default browser) and now I am seeing WAT page contents.