After you have created an ASP.NET Web application project or an ASP.NET Web site project in Visual Studio, you typically deploy the project to a Web server where others can access your application. Deployment typically involves more than just copying the application's files from one server to another. You might also have to perform additional tasks, such as the following:
• Changing Web.config file settings that must be different in the destination environment, such as settings for debugging, or database connection strings.
• Propagating data or data structures in databases that are used by the Web application.
• Configuring IIS settings on the destination computer, such as the application pool, the authentication method, whether directory browsing is allowed, and error handling.
• Installing security certificates.
• Setting values in the registry of the destination computer.
• Installing application assemblies in the global assembly cache (GAC) on the destination computer.
An extension to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) that is named Web Deploy can automate most deployment tasks. Visual Studio provides tools that work with Web Deploy to make it easier for you to deploy a Web application project.
Web deployment tools have been improved in Visual Studio 2012. You can install the improved tools in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 Express by installing the Visual Studio Web Publish Update. For information about how to use the new tools, see the Visual Studio 2012 documentation. A good place to start is Web Application Project Deployment Overview for Visual Studio and ASP.NET.