W3wp process not found

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010 to debug an asp.net MVC project on my local machine. Steps:

Click "Debug" and try to terminate the "w3wp.exe" process. However, it is not on the list.

I am sure that the "Show processes in all sessions" button is clicked.

Answer 1

'w3wp.exe will not be displayed in the current process' unless there really is an instance of the web application.

First, try to access your web page when it is displayed for the first time, try connecting your debugger. Now the process should appear.

Answer 2

You need to click "Show Processes" from all users at the bottom of the "Task Manager" list. This is what I needed to do.

Answer 3

• Restart IIS
• Right click on your site -> Site Management -> Overview
• In Visual Studio, update the process list.

Answer 4

Try checking the box next to "Show processes for all users." When in the lower left corner of the "Join the process" window the "Show processes for all users" checkbox is selected

Answer 5

If you use something like Advanced Rest Client to test routes, call your route again, and then refresh the process list and display

Answer 6

GoTo Web Project properties → Select (Web) in the left sidebar → GoTo under the headings (Servers) → Click the drop-down menu and select "Local IIS"

and apply. Then, when you start debugging, you will see w3wp.exe in the proccess list.

Answer 7

I just ran into this problem - you can also double-check your host settings and make sure that you are actually pointing to localhost, not the production server.

I forgot that I pointed to a remote server, and thus, although I accessed the site, it was not something local, so w3wp did not execute, despite the fact that I could see that the site was working.

Answer 8

In my case, I did not open Visual Studio in administrator mode, so w3wp.exe did not appear in the list.

When I opened Visual Studio in admin mode, it worked.

Right click on Visual Studio -> Open in Admin Mode.

Answer 9

A simple way that works when w3wp does not appear in the list, open a browser and write localhost, then enter. After that, w3wp will appear in the list.

Answer 10

In my case, after I rebuilt the web project and increased the connection time limit (in seconds), it automatically appears in the "Debug / Join Process" list and continues to work.

Answer 11

I would like to share my experience with future readers.

Remember that if you have a cluster web server configuration (for load balancing, etc.), the w3wp process may not start on the same computer as you expect.

If your website is not configured to run only one instance of IIS , the w3wp process can spin on one of the other machines inside your web cluster.

This may be a faulty configuration from the network team / department or the intended behavior. I do not have the necessary experience to specify exactly how to configure it.

Find also the linked page on MSDN:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742600.aspx

Answer 12

In my case, I needed to connect from one Visual Studio to a process that starts from another VS Studio window.
The problem was this: one VS was started with administrator permissions. To solve this problem, you must run VS with administrator privileges.

Answer 13

In my case, the problem was that I did not start Visual Studio as an administrator. My machine restarted after the update and restarted all previously running processes, but only restarted VS in non-administrator mode. When I restarted VS in administrator mode, the w3wp.exe processes were again available for debugging.

Answer 14

Run the remote debugger as an administrator. I followed each suggestion to solve the problem, but only after I launched the remote debugger as an administrator, I could see the w3wp process

Answer 15

Try the following:

• Create a virtual path from Solution Explorer.

• Go to inetmgr to confirm that your own pool has been created.

• Go to the Attach Process (Ctrl + Alt + P) and show the processes to all users.

• Then you will see that w3wp.exe will be there.

Answer 16

Remember that even after jumping all these hoops (shutting down the instance using a web browser, starting a remote debugging session as an administrator, providing a “show all users” check, etc., ensuring that you are not on a server farm, etc. d.), you are still sometimes out of luck.

There are times when a remote process, usually a WCF service in my case, simply will not appear in the list of connected processes, and nothing can be done there. I always try to make my target process easily identifiable, storing it only in a specific application pool. Sometimes you just can't get here. This is undoubtedly the most annoying thing about remote debugging Microsoft has ever done.