visual studio debug error unable to start program no more files

Question

System info: Win 7 x64 SP 1, IE 10, Visual Studio 2010

I've been researching this error all over.

visual studio debug error:

"unable to start program (File path) no more files"

This started with the installation of internet explorer 10 and is happening across all my web projects within Visual Studio 2010.

I've tried all possible solutions (but not VS re-installs) from registry entries (http://forums.asp.net/t/1891930.aspx/1), IE 10 reinstall (fail...won't let me reinstall due to existing version) to switching default launch browser (in Visual Studio, select a different browser such as Chrome to be default browser in "Browse With..." option in project..it works but is pain in the rear) but one thing I just tried which is making me wonder if there is an issue with how IE 10 is launched came from the following experiment:

Basically I did the same process of changing the default browser except that I picked IE 10 x86 version manually in the "Browse With..." option, set it as default and ran project. Voila, it works with no issues.

My next step was to confirm the default IE option in the "Browse With...". I found articles such as (http://lennybacon.com/post/2010/08/22/rehowtochangethedefaultbrowserinvisualstudioprogrammatically) which put me on the path to find out where the settings are for Visual Studios default browser settings.

I checked the browser.xml file and all looked ok including the registry entry pointing to it. I'm unable to check the version of the browser since MS, in it's infinite wisdom decided not to show that info in the Help -> About or anywhere else. so my gut feeling is that the default IE 10 being launched is the x64 bit version.

Does anyone know? 1) how I can confirm the default version of IE 10 launched since afore methods have not worked and 2) why would (I'm assuming) IE 10 x64 launch vs. the defined IE 10 x86 referenced version in the browser.xml file?

Thanks for any and all help. Dave

UPDATE:

So from doing continual testing, it seems that after I ran the process to change the Default Browser settings in both the registry and the browser.xml file, upon launching the debug process in Visual Studio 2010, it automatically reverted back to the original default broswer settings which would launch the x64 version of IE 10. So in my case, it seems that the issue (error above) lies in the fact that debugging in Visual Studio 2010 using x64 browsers would cause the error. With no recourse, I ended up removing IE 10 from Windows Features and going through a painful process of getting IE 9 back on my system, I now can effectively debug using IE (x86).

It seems that MS is not pursuing any fixes for this issue of the default browser in VS 2010 from what I've read. There are in browser tools I've seen to do the default browser setting changes but don't want to bother with it/don't trust it will work.

Hopfully this helps others dealing with the same pain I have endured...

Thanks

Dave

Solution 1

When I ran into this problem (using IE 11) I noticed that iexplore was open about a hundred times in the task manager. After killing them all I was able to open my project just fine.

Since then, I have made a .bat file with this code: taskkill /F /IM iexplore.exe /T

so now I just run the .bat when I get that error. (alternatively you could run that code from the cmd)

Solution 2

James Butler's response is good for killing all the open IE processes. Which seems to be the issue here. The best solution I have been using is to just set, "Don't open a page. Wait for a request from an external application." then I just refresh the URL (if already open in browser) each time I rerun the debugger.

Access in Project properties under the, "Web" option. Then change setting there.