>Someone has plugged IIS Express into a project. When I download that project, I cannot open it because of that. How can I remove that dependency at that project level to avoid that?

I've run into this the other day. Worse Visual Studio kept resetting the flag after I reset manually it in the project file.

The way to fix it is to set the UseIISExpress flag to false in the project file. At that point the project should open at least. You'll have to reset the Web preferences.

You should make sure to uncheck the Apply server settings to all Users checkbox - this syncs the settings across everybody who opens the project. Unchecked means your local settings are stored in the solution .SUO file which is local to you and not shared. This way everybody can have their own settings. After you change anything in this section, make sure you explicitly save your project and solution (Save All from File Menu).

+++ Rick ---