Debugging Visual Studio 2005 web applications with Firefox

I recently purchased a new laptop (an experience I’ll talk about another time) and got a new desktop at work, so I had the pleasure of re-installing Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 twice in the past two months. (The service pack install was faster, thanks to this tip.) Everything seemed fine, except for one thing: I couldn’t get Visual Studio to recognize Firefox as my default browser, which meant every time I started a web project (debugging or not), Internet Explorer would rear its ugly head.

Getting Visual Studio 2005 to recognize FirefoxThe solution was not to change the Windows default browser (it was already IE) or to set some crazy start action on your web project. It’s more obscure. In VS, go to File / Browse With, add a new browser that points to Firefox, then set that as the default.

OK, it does make sense on some levels, and maybe it’s good that VS can have a different default browser than Windows, but shouldn’t that option be in the Tools / Options window, perhaps under the Environment section, which already has a Web Browser group?

At least I figured it out without breaking (another) mouse.

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It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.

-- Charles Darwin

Comments 4

  1. Noelia wrote:

    I haven’t got File / Browse With option in VS 2005. I need to change the default browser from Firefox to IExplorer because some controls don’t work with firefox. Can you help me?Thanks

    Posted 20 May 2008 at 4:03 am
  2. Noelia wrote:

    I found the solution:
    http://geekswithblogs.net/AndrewSiemer/archive/2007/10/17/Changing-your-debug-browser-to-Fire-Fox-in-Visual-Studio.aspx

    Posted 20 May 2008 at 4:31 am
  3. RAUL wrote:

    VERY VERY COOL!!!!!!!!!

    Posted 12 Dec 2008 at 8:56 am
  4. Quinton wrote:

    Hi

    Great tip, thanks.

    I have found that when I close the Firefox window, the VS debugger doesn’t stop the application debugging in VS. I have to manually click the “Stop” button in my VS toolbar.
    Also, if I click the “Stop” button on the VS toolbar before closing the browser window, Firefox doesn’t close.

    These things don’t happen if I use IE to debug!

    Any ideas on how to get the same functionallity in Firefox?

    Posted 17 Jul 2009 at 2:49 am

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