visual studio localhost server can't locate file

Question

i have a very simple web project. just one htm file with some javascript that opens a file test.xml.

the xml file is in the same folder as the htm file (and it is part of the project) but when i start the page (f5 or ctrl-f5) it can't find the xml.

it starts as http://localhost:50586/main.htm when i do a folder list the test.xml file is right there.

opening the page directly in firefox works fine and the script can read and extract data from the xml.

1. how can i convince the development server that the xml is indeed there??
2. or better still: how can i turn the development server off entirely? for my purposes simply opening the page in my browser is all i need and that should happen from within vs of course.