Turn off WCF application start in debug

Question

I have a solution with many WCF services and a few web project that consume some of the services. I use Visual Studio 2013 with the newest patches applied.

The WCF services are of the type WCF application. This means whenever I start a web application in debug all the WCF services are started as well. Now I would like to disable this behavior, so that only those WCF services are started that I need, because of the size of the solution this has significant impact on application startup time.

Note that we are talking about WCF service applications, not WCF service libraries (so I do not have a WCF options tab in properties).

The closest I could get was to specify multiple startup projects (one web app plus required services), but this only works if I start the project without debugging.

So again, the behavior that I wish for: When I click on Start my startup project should start as well as the WCF services that it requires/references. Others (not referenced services and libraries) should not start.

Can you help me with this?

Answer 1

In a WCF Service Application you can control the start behavior using the properties window. It's not the default big window and somewhat irritating.

To change the start behavior:

1. Open the Property Window by selecting View->Properties Window in your toolbar. Default Hotkey would be F4.
2. Then select your WCF Service Application. There should be a Property "Always Start When Debugging". Set it to false

See attached Image for an example. https://i.sstatic.net/BFe9P.png