w3wp process not found

Question

I use Visual Studio 2010 to debug a asp.net MVC project in my local machine. The steps are:

Click Debug and try to attch process "w3wp.exe". However it is not in the list.

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

If you can't find w3wp.exe then IIS is not currently running. Make sure that the IIS Admin service is started, the WWW service is started, the application pool is started and the IIS website itself is started. — Joel Etherton, Nov 19 '12 at 20:53
Are you using **Local IIS** (*`w3wp.exe`*) or **VS Development Server** (*`WebDev.WebServer40.exe`*)? Check under your Project Properties -> Web tab. — SliverNinja - MSFT, Nov 19 '12 at 20:56
Have you tried to check "Show Process From all Users" option? — Irvin Dominin, Nov 19 '12 at 20:56
Did you mean go to control panel then start IIS? I can't find it. — , Nov 19 '12 at 20:58
In the attach to process window; are you running visual studio 2010 as administrator? http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/jannemattila/WindowsLiveWriter/eb0f5b1dcb22_12A25/VSDebugger_2.png the first option under the process list — Irvin Dominin, Nov 19 '12 at 20:59
Answer in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4313206/cannot-attach-debugger-to-w3wp tl;dr? w3wp process sleeps, so refresh page in browser to wake it up and it should now appear in list. — Ruskin, Jan 22 '14 at 18:53
Does this answer your question? [Cannot attach debugger to w3wp](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4313206/cannot-attach-debugger-to-w3wp) — Mark Schultheiss, Sep 20 '22 at 19:20

score 220 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '12 at 21:01

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w3wp.exe won't show in the running process' unless there is actually an instance of the web application running.

Try to access your web page first, when it is displayed for the first time, try to attach your debugger. The process should now show up.

answered Nov 19 '12 at 21:01

Yan Brunet

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If it has been a while since you refreshed the page, the process may be sleeping. Wake it up with a refresh. – Ruskin Jan 22 '14 at 18:54
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Yup, the site should have been running at the time you trying to attach to the process. It doesn't have to be on the same server. – Hash Jun 10 '14 at 08:30
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Note that in Windows8 and 7, you need to run VS as administrator – Samih A Aug 08 '14 at 08:17
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Had everything right, except this part. Had no idea the process is not continuously running – tinonetic Jan 25 '16 at 09:22
Better yet, it's a different process for each of you application pool. – Yan Brunet Mar 24 '16 at 18:41
Did you just do a 'iisreset', then open the application in the browser – Dhanuka777 Jul 08 '19 at 05:55
I'm glad that i searched the exact title for this before going to my machine trying to see if my user had enogh priviledges and ultimatetly reinstalling all my windows. – celerno Nov 18 '21 at 22:13
It works. Now I too have learnt this secret technique. – TheLegendaryCopyCoder Mar 23 '22 at 12:40
Many years later, still a very good answer. – Overlord Feb 10 '23 at 10:15

score 107 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 23 '13 at 22:47

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You need to click Show Processes from All Users at the bottom of the Task Manager list. This is what i needed to do.

answered Nov 23 '13 at 22:47

Jacob Pressures

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This solved my problem. The reason is in IIS, the process was running under an App Pool and not my current user. – L_7337 Jan 25 '16 at 14:34
Perfect this is the answer, on if you are working on windows 7 – fizmhd Oct 10 '16 at 06:37

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 27 '15 at 19:55

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Restart IIS
Right click your site >> Manage Website >> Browse
Back into Visual Studio refresh the processes list

answered Feb 27 '15 at 19:55

Neph

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Depends on the site, it could be Manage Website, or Manage Application. Both will start the w3wp.exe process. – Milton Jun 29 '15 at 17:27
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I didn't even have to restart IIS...I just followed steps 2 and 3 and it worked. :) Maybe the list hadn't been refreshed. – thecoolmacdude Oct 07 '15 at 16:56

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 25 '18 at 03:44

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Try to check on :"Show Processes for All Users" When on the 'Attach to Process' window in the bottom left there is a checkbox 'Show Processes for All Users'

answered Sep 25 '18 at 03:44

Trong Vo

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score 9 · Answer 5 · answered May 17 '19 at 09:41

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An easy way that works ,when w3wp dont appear in the list,open a browser and write localhost ,then enter.After that w3wp appears to list.

answered May 17 '19 at 09:41

Works like a charm! – JowieXiang Oct 13 '22 at 10:12
This is a nice little trick!! – Rukshan Dangalla Dec 13 '22 at 21:28

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 28 '20 at 14:27

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Just because an IIS application pool is started, there may not be an IIS worker process w3wp running. IIS will not start the worker process until the first web request is received.

In my case, I first launched the application, still could not find w3wp.exe. Then I took the worker process ID from (IIS->Worker Process -> Process Id) and then search by id in the details tab and found it.

edited Dec 28 '20 at 14:27

Shankar Ganesh Jayaraman

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answered Dec 28 '20 at 14:07

TBA

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score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 13 '21 at 12:43

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Clear the Solution
Rebuild the solution
Reset the IIS by writing the command iisreset in command prompt
Go to IIS and browse your website
Run VS as administrator
Tools -> Attach to process -> Ensure the 'Show Processes for All Users' checkbox is
checked -> w3wp.exe
Attach to w3wp.exec

edited Apr 13 '21 at 12:43

gurkan

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answered Apr 12 '21 at 05:14

Nitin Maurya

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 28 '14 at 12:57

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If you are using something like Advanced Rest Client to test routes, call your route again then refresh the list of processes and it will show up

answered Mar 28 '14 at 12:57

JrBriones

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 16 '15 at 19:28

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GoTo Web Project properties -> Select (Web) on the left sidebar -> GoTo under (Servers) header -> Click to dropdown and select "Local IIS"

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

answered Feb 16 '15 at 19:28

Oğuzhan Soykan

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 16 '15 at 20:19

I just ran into this issue - you may want to also double check your host settings and verify that you are actually pointed to localhost and not a production server.

I forgot I was pointed at a remote server, and thus, though I was accessing the site, it wasn't anything local so w3wp wasn't running, despite my superficially being able to see the site running.

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 21 '17 at 06:16

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In my case, I have not opened the Visual Studio in Admin mode that is why the w3wp.exe was not showing on the list.

When I opened the Visual Studio in Admin mode, it worked.

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

answered Dec 21 '17 at 06:16

Neel

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score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 16 '19 at 14:10

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In my case, once I rebuild the web project and raise the limit of Connection Time out (in seconds), it automatically shows in Debug/Attach to Process list and keeps working.

answered Jul 16 '19 at 14:10

A. Seculici

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score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 26 '22 at 07:38

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my answer is late for sure, but maybe my answer will help someone.

Go To IIS.
Application Pools.
Advance Setting.
enable 32.bit Application. Make your Application Running Under enable 32.bit Application.

answered Jan 26 '22 at 07:38

omar nazzal

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 30 '16 at 12:14

I would just like to share my experience as well for future readers.

Be aware that, in the event that you have a web server cluster configuration (for load balancing etc) the w3wp process might not start on the same machine that you expect it to.

Unless your website is configured to only run on a single IIS instance, the w3wp process might be spinning up on one of the other machines inside of your web cluster.

This might be faulty configuration from the networking team/department or intended behaviour. I don't have the neccessary experience to pin point exactly how it should be configured.

Found a related page on MSDN as well:

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

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Jun 06 '17 at 12:46

In my case, I needed to connect from one Visual Studio to the process which running from another VS studio window.
The problem was next: one VS was launched with Administrator permissions. For resolving that issue you should launch both VS with Admin perm.

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jun 27 '17 at 08:01

In my case, the problem was that I wasn't running Visual Studio as Administrator. My machine had restarted after an update and relaunched all the previously running processes, but had only relaunched VS in non-admin mode. When I restarted VS in admin mode, the w3wp.exe processes were available again for debugging.

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Jul 24 '17 at 18:22

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Run the remote debugger as an administrator. I followed every suggestion to resolve the issue, but it was not until I ran the remote debugger as an administrator that I was able to see the w3wp process

answered Jul 24 '17 at 18:22

AidaM

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Mati Ullah Zahir · Answer 18 · 2017-08-06T11:21:20.933

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Try the following steps:

Create a virtual path from Solution Explorer.
Go to inetmgr to confirm that your own pool is created.
Go to Attach Process (Ctrl+Alt+P) and show processes for all users.
Then you will see w3wp.exe will be there.

edited Aug 06 '17 at 11:21

answered Aug 03 '17 at 11:20

Mati Ullah Zahir

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score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Aug 10 '17 at 19:52

Be aware that even after jumping through all these hoops (kicking off an instance using a web browser, starting your remote debugging session as an admin, ensuring that "show all users" is checked, etc., ensuring you aren't on a server farm, etc), you may still at times be out of luck.

There are times when the remote process, usually a WCF service in my case, simply will not show up in the list of processes to attach to, and there's nothing that can be done about it. I'm always careful to make my target process readily identifiable by keeping it and only it in a certain App Pool. Sometimes you just can't get there from here. This is undoubtedly the most frustrating thing about remote debugging Microsoft has ever done.

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Jul 05 '23 at 15:06

To see the w3wp.exe process in your process list, follow these steps:

Ensure that your IIS server is running.
Verify that the "ScadaAppPool" application pool is running. You can do this by opening the 'IIS Manager' and looking for ScadaAppPool pool under the application pools section.
If both of these are running and you still do not see the w3wp.exe process, you can try recycling the application pool or forcing a request onto your application to trigger the w3wp.exe process.

To do this, you can use the following script in your terminal:

:: Change the current directory to the directory where the script is being run
cd /d "%~dp0"

:: Create a new empty file named "tempfile" in the "temp" subdirectory
type nul > temp\tempfile

:: Send an HTTP GET request to a specific URL
:: Replace "http://your-url-here" with the URL you want to send a request to
curl http://your-url-here

:: Delete the previously created "tempfile"
del temp\tempfile


:: Alternative
:: "%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd" recycle APPPOOL "PoolDApplicationsName"

These commands will force the start of the w3wp.exe process, and you should now be able to see it in your process list for debugging. I hope this information is helpful.

w3wp process not found

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