[SOLVED] Why can I remove ExtensionlessUrlHandler from an MVC application without any ill effects?

Why can I remove ExtensionlessUrlHandler from an MVC application without any ill effects?

I am trying to streamline my MVC application and deleting as much as possible. Can someone explain to me what this code below does in the web.config file in the root of the application. I have commented it out and still managed to run the application...

<system.webServer>
     
  <handlers>
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit"/>
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit"/>
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0"/>
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness32" responseBufferLimit="0"/>
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness64" responseBufferLimit="0"/>
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0"/>
    </handlers>
    ...

I have looked at this question: ASP.NET MVC 4 and ExtensionlessUrlHandler which has an answer that links to this blog: https://web.archive.org/web/20100611160242/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tmarq/archive/2010/05/26/how-extensionless-urls-are-handled-by-asp-net-v4.aspx but I don't find it to explain my question.

I am using: IIS 8, ASP.NET MVC 4, .NET 4.5 in both development and production

Solution

IIS express uses different handlers names than IIS

Add the following markup and it should disable the extensionless handlers for IIS express only

<remove name="ExtensionlessUrl-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" />
<remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" />
<remove name="ExtensionlessUrl-Integrated-4.0" />