Cannot control startup projects in Visual Studio

Question

Visual Studio 2012 will not allow me to set multiple startup projects.

I have tried:

• Right-click the solution / Set StartUp Projects...

  Result: Nothing happens.

• View / Property Pages

  Result: Popup "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

I have no add-ins running, and disabled all extensions that can be disabled without uninstalling. Active extensions are

• Microsoft Web Developer Tools
• NuGet Package Manager
• Visual Studio Extensions for Windows Library for JavaScript (1.0.8377.0 AND 1.0.9200.20512
• VisualSVN

Is this a known issue? Is there a fix/work-around? Can I specify the startup projects by editing the .sln/.csproj file if the VS2012 UI continues to fail?

Answer 1

Found this post while searching for a related issue I was having. I thought it would be helpful for others to know what I found.

My problem was trying to switch between start up projects, IIS Express would always load the same project. My solution was to edit the project properties >Web> assign a different port number for each project. Now when I select Set as StartUp Project... it actually works

Note** I did not have any issues with NuGet probably because I'm using the released version of 2013

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure this has to do with NuGet Package Manager. I did as described here.

Uninstalled NuGet Package Manager in Tools => Extensions and Updates... and restarted Visual Studio 2012/Visual Studio 2013 Preview. Now I can happily configure my solution properties again!

Installed NuGet Package Manager again and the problem reappeared. :(

This is a palliative answer. If there's a definitive answer, please share it! :)

Make sure you vote on this Connect Bug.