I'm running Windows 10, IIS 10, VS 2015, SQL Server 2016.  IIS App Pool is using the Network Service as an identity.

Here is what I've posted on VS 2015 Forums:

I have 2 machines to keep my educational work separate from my business work.  On both, I now have VS 2015 Professional installed.

On the first, I'm able to build the DNN 8 Source solution just fine.  Then browse to the site with Chrome and Dot Net Nuke does it's thing and installs.  The website can be accessed.

On the 2nd machine, this gets complicated.  I tried the build first with VS 2017 and the DNN install worked but I could not browse to the site.  Eventually, I just copied the Website code and DB from the other machine to other and it works.

For the 2nd machine, here's the sequence of events:

• With VS 2017, built the solution which seemed to go fine
• Browsed to the site and got a nebulous Dot Net Nuke Error, was able to find what was failing.  A file could not be located in the path so the site broke, basically.  Could not fix it by tracing down permissions, etc.  So ...
• Uninstalled VS 2017, installed VS 2015 Community and set everything back up.  Got the same error.
• Uninstalled Community and installed VS 2015 Pro.  Built the solution, got the same error.

Backed up the DB on the working machine, zipped up the working website content.  Set up the Db on the new machine and replaced the /website folder content.  Bravo!  Could now browse to the site.  However, this replaced the former /website content for the Visual studio solution's original /website content.

Now when I build the solution I get 10 errors, all from the DotNetNuke.Website project.  They're all errors that complain files can't be found.  All the files are in Solution Explorer.

Copied the path of one of the files from one error and sure enough, in Windows Explorer I can browse to the location and find the file is there.  Checked permissions, these are correct.

OK, somehow there are build errors happening that I can't track down.  I can copy all the solution code over from the machine where the build / DNN install worked but really, I need to find out what happened to the process on the non-working machine.  It'll just sneak up and bite my hind quarters again if that isn't located.

If possible I'd like to skype-share, go to meeting, etc. with someone to track down what's up.  Or if this seemingly complex scenario has a simple solution and anyone sees what it is, info me.  I sure don't see it. :) 

Thanks in advance -- this is a tough nut to crack, I think.

Here are screen shots to show Visual Studio should know the files are there.  This is the error window:

Here is the solution explorer:

Here is the Properties window, clearly showing the correct path to the file:

As far as images go, wow.  I don't believe pasting of them is permitted and they don't show.

The error image just shows this text:

CS2001 Source file 'D:\DNNSites\DurthalerTechSvcs\DNN8SOURCE\Website\DesktopModules\Admin\UrlManagement\UrlProviderSettings.ascx.designer.cs' could not be found.

Could be an important clue: Next image shows the files in Solution Explorer, the .ascx file shows up and can be opened but its related .cs and designer.cs file have yellow exclam icons.

Next image is the properties and shows the file name: UrlProviderSettings.ascx.cs

and then its full path: D:\DNNSites\DurthalerTechSvcs\DNN8SOURCE\Website\DesktopModules\Admin\UrlManagement\UrlProviderSettings.ascx.cs. 

Tried the restart procedure already didn't work.

NTFS permissions can be set on the document level so tried that with the above file.  Allowed Full Control for Everyone to it, didn't work.  Just to be sure, went up to its container, UrlManagement (folder) and set Everyone to Full Control.  Still did not build.

There may be something unique to this machine that does it.  It's really a gaming machine (MSI Dragon) so may have some sort of thing in it to prevent unknowledgeable users from 'harming' themselves.

Well, next step will be not to over write just the website folder from the working site but everything else.  It could be something related to these files isn't showing up on the 2nd machine.

Here's another clue -- a number of these files live in hidden folders.  When I 'Show All Folders' on both machines, the same folders are hidden but still, the other machine builds it just fine.  Also, the ONLY failures are in the Desktop Modules / Admin folder and the root /Install folder.  Both of which may have some sort of web.config restrictions but I have no idea of how to confirm that.  I can browse the web.config for these terms and see if something doesn't show up but it's not likely.  Why would the same web.config work on one machine and not the other?

Thanks for responding, this one will be hard to figure out.

Yep, I can navigate to each one of the files in Windows Explorer

I did another look at the file Properties in Windows Explorer.  The 'Hidden' checkbox is not checked.  I have not reviewed each file but I suspect none of their 'Hidden' check boxes would be checked.

It will take some time but I can copy the files over manually.  That could take all day or most of it due to the size of the source code Visual Studio solution.  There are some 78 projects in all.  I'll copy over the files, unzipped, for the web project first and if that does not resolve it, then I'll copy over the entire 78 projects.  This way, if these are bogus errors that are somehow caused by having copied the website files from one build to a different one, we'd find out if somehow that's what's up.  I hope I make sense by that.

That will take some time, so I'll do it around Noon or so.  Just got back from out of town and it's 04:15 here.