Identifying Worker Process (w3wp.exe) – IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 for Debugging ASP.NET Application

If you are debugging a ASP.NET web application which is hosted on IIS, you need to attach the particular worker process in Visual Studio to start debugging. To Attach a process we can go to Tools > Attach Process or use shortcut key Ctrl +P. The process window will show the worker process (w3wp.exe) which is currently running on IIS. You need to select the process and click on attach button to start the debugging.

Problem starts when you have multiple worker process running on IIS.  If you have multiple sites hosted on IIS and each site having their own application pool then you will see the list of all worker process in the Process Attach window. 

Here  you need to identify the particular worker process which is associated with your application pool. Note: Whenever we create a new Application Pool, the ID of the Application Pool is being generated and it’s registered with the HTTP.SYS (Kernel Level of IIS) . So whenever HTTP.SYS Received the request from any web application,  it checks for the Application Pool and based on the application pool it send the request 

C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv>appcmd list wp