How To: Stop “Access Denied” errors in MVC Intranet Applications VS 2012/IIS Express [Field Notes]

Problem:

• Using Visual 2012 and IIS Express
• Building an MVC4 Intranet project
• Authentication Doesn’t appear to work; I always get an “Access Denied” screen on every page.

Cause

This happens because IIS Express isn’t configured by default for Windows Authentication.

Solution

• Run your project.
• While it is running / showing you the error, find the IIS Express Icon in your system tray
• Right-click the icon and select Show all Web Applications.
• Click on your web application.
• Look at the Config property to find where your applicationhost.config file is stored.
• Stop your web site and open that applicationhost.config file for editing.
• Find the section where WindowsAuthentication enabled is set to false and change it to true.
• Save the file.