How to enable SharePoint to handle the forbidden files ?

We tried to store files which has the (.rules) extension in document library, once we added all these files to the document repository,we tried to download these files by clicking on it. It ended up in an error message stating.

This type of page is not served.
Description: The type of page you have requested is not served because it has been explicitly forbidden.
The extension '.rules' may be incorrect. Please review the URL below and make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Requested URL: /Financial Documents/TestRulesSet.rules

But the Send to->"Download a copy"  option works as expected. When we use this method we are asking the OOB download.aspx page to download the content for us.

 After re-collecting the basics of SPHttpHandler which handles all the SharePoint requests. This handler is forbidding this specifying file type. so the solution is to

Add a http handler before SPHttpHandler which serves this file type as expected

 Open windows explorer , navigate to the virtual directory and open web.config with your favorite text editor

 Find section and the following segment below after the remove block, so after adding the httpHandlers section will look like below

 <remove verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*" />

<add verb="*" path="*.rules" type="System.Web.StaticFileHandler" />
<add verb="GET,HEAD,POST" path="*" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHttpHandler...

 Do an IISReset

Warning : Do understand the risk of exposing these forbidden files using StaticFileHandler

Following is the list of Http handlers which takes care of the frequently used ASP.NET file types

• trace.axd - System.Web.Handlers.TraceHandler
• aspx - System.Web.UI.PageHandlerFactory
• ashx - System.Web.UI.SimpleHandlerFactory
• asmx - System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebServiceHandlerFactory
• rem - System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http.HttpRemotingHandlerFactory
• soap - System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http.HttpRemotingHandlerFactory
• asax - System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler
• ascx - System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler
• All sharepoint request - Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHttpHandler
• Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd -Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.HttpHandler

SharePoint 2010 SPSite : System.IO.FileNotFoundException

Can any one spot an error in the following snippet. Following snippet tries to open a SPSite, SPWeb and tries to open a List to get it item count. All objects exist in the server and this code was built with VS 2010 for SharePoint 2010 in x86 Debug mode.

I ended up with the following exception

System.IO.FileNotFoundException was unhandled
Message=The Web application at http://Foo could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.
Source=Microsoft.SharePoint
StackTrace:
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, SPUserToken userToken)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(String requestUrl)
at ConsoleApplication1.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Users\Administrator\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\Program.cs:line 17
at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args)
at System.AppDomain.ExecuteAssembly(String assemblyFile, Evidence assemblySecurity, String[] args)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly()
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
InnerException:

After a couple of minutes I got things straight. There was a mistake in the build, as a basic rule while developing for SharePoint 2010 all your build should be in x64 mode not in x86 mode.

Basic mistake, but it hurts and the error message is not really helping...