"StartTag: invalid element name" in default.aspx

(Warning - asp newbie) I have an aspx file with the tag

    <%@ Page Language=VB  ... %>

right at the beginning of the file.

When calling this from my IIS server (http://localhost/myservice/default.aspx), this gives me the error

This page contains the following errors:

error on line 1 at column 2: StartTag: invalid element name
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.

What am I doing wrong?

Solution 1:

It appears as if the browser tries to display what it thinks is an XML file, since it gives an error on the second character of the first line. So I think the file is not parsed, but simply returned as is immediately. Check if your IIS server is configured correctly and that it actually parses your ASP tags before returning the page.

Solution 2:

When I went into the ASP.NET tab for the virtual directory I noticed the ASP.NET version was not selected (it was an empty combo box). Choosing the .NET framework version did the trick. Thanks.