Debugging console application in VS 2008 launches web servers?

Question

I have a rather large solution in VS 2008. It contains 3 web applications and a console application as well as numerous class library projects.

I've set the console application as the startup project, but when I debug (using F5) Visual Studio launches development web servers for all three of the web projects.

My question is why, and can I stop this behavior?

There are no dependencies between the web apps and the console application. They both share some references to the class library projects, but the console application is in no way referencing the web applications.

Answer 1

You can surely unload these web projects (right-click on them in Solution Explorer and select Unload Project). Additionally, you can try creating a new Configuration (right-click on Solution in Solution Explorer and select Configuration Manager) where these projects will be excluded from build. Not sure if the latter will help, though.

Answer 2

Have you set the startup project to the console application? E.g. right click at your project and choose Set As StartUp Project.