Publishing a Website in Visual Studio Express Edition

Overview

Visual Web Developer 2005 (and 2008) Express Edition do not have the Publish website item on their Build menus. This article shows a work-around.

Implementation

(1) In Visual Studio Web Developer 2005 (or 2008), navigate to Tools > External Tools.

(2) In the External Tools dialog, specify the following parameters.

FieldValue
TitlePre-&compile (non-updatable)
CommandC:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_compiler.exe
Arguments-p "$(ProjectDir)" -v / "$(ProjectDir)\..\Publication"
Use Output WindowChecked

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(3) Now you can publish any website via the Tools menu > Pre-compile (non-updatable) menu item.

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