Bundled css link gets a 404 error

Question

I am trying to get bundling to work in ASP.NET MVC 4. I am getting a 404 error from the link generated for the bundled CSS. I have done the following:

1. Installed the "Microsoft ASP.NET Web Optimization Framework" package via NuGet (v4.0.20710.0)

2. Created a BundleConfig class in the App_Start dir with the following contents:

   using System.Web.Optimization;
   namespace BsdAppTemplate.Web_Nancy.App_Start
   {
       public class BundleConfig
       {
           public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
           {
               bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/bundles/styles/cvi").Include(
                   "~/mainstyles.css"
               ));
           }
       }
   }
   

3. Added the following to Web.config at site root:

   <system.web>
       <compilation debug="false" targetFramework="4.5" />
   
       <pages>
         <namespaces>
           <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization"/>
           ...
         </namespaces>
       </pages>
   </system.web>
   

4. Added the following to the head element of my MVC layout file:

    @Styles.Render("~/bundles/styles/cvi")
   

5. Copied the CSS file referenced in BundleConfig ("mainstyles.css") into the root directory of my web project.

When I view the source of a rendered file, I can see the link appears as:

<link href="/bundles/styles/cvi" rel="stylesheet"/>

This link results in a 404 when browsing to it, or viewing the page request in Chrome's network tab.

I have also tried the equivalent on a web form, but I get the same result (404) from the link generated when I add:

<%: Styles.Render("~/bundles/styles/cvi") %>

Answer 1

Found this question via google results, but the problem in my case was Windows 2008 needed this in web.config to work when compilation debug=false.

<system.webServer>
  <modules>
    <add name="BundleModule" type="System.Web.Optimization.BundleModule" />
  </modules>
</system.webServer>

It worked fine on Win7 dev machine without this.