title: Visual Studio ASP.NET MVC project: setting the start URL
body: <p>Consider an ASP.NET MVC 2 project with VS 2010. The goal is to set the 'start URL' on run/debug using VS's built-in Cassini web server.</p>
  
  <p>Entering the URL as I want to be loaded, in the typical &amp; valid format, <code>controller/action</code>, VS 2010 gives this exception.</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zq7gC.png" alt="alt text"></p>
  
  <p><strong>Tried Remedies:</strong></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>starting the URL with and without a slash</li>
  <li>ending the URL with and without a slash</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Question:</strong> How can you specify the start URL for an MVC 2 project?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Technologies:</strong></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Visual Studio 2010 </li>
  <li>ASP.NET MVC 2 </li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Resolution:</strong> I was using the wrong field in the startup options. What was needed was the "<strong>Specific Page</strong>" field with the relative URL, and not Start URL.</p>