How to solve a "HTTP Error 404.3 - Not Found" error?

Question

Simple problem. I start up VS2008 and create a new WCF Service application. This will create a default application with a few test methods showing it works. I press CTRL+F5 and it does indeed work! Great! However, it uses the Visual Studio Development server, which I don't want to support.

So I go to the project properties, switch to using a local IIS Web server, create the virtual directory and press CTRL+F5 again. And this "HTTP Error 404.3 - Not Found" error is greeting me back.

So something in my IIS7/Vista-64 setup is wrong. What could I be missing?

Answer 1

If you faced this problem for the first time. with Windows 8 and IIS 8.0 make sure to activate Windows Communication Foundation HTTP windows feature.

1. Go to Control Panel select "Programs and features"
2. From the lift hand side menu select "Turn Windows features on or off".
3. Expand ".Net Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)" item
4. Finally select "Windows Communication Foundation HTTP Activation"
5. Enjoy your WCF Servcie.

Answer 2

Click Start -> Run cmd and type:

cd "\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation"
ServiceModelReg.exe -i