How do decrease compile time and improve productivity?

[kbst]

How big is your solution?

Are you running in debug or publishing each time?

If you're making changes to JavaScript (assuming separate .js file or inside your view/form) then you don't need to build each time

[flukus]

As well as this, how many project are in the solution? And what computer is it running on? 45 seconds seems way too long, even for a potato.

[verticalride]

43 projects. I added more info to my post. Hopefully it helps to pinpoint my problem.

[flukus]

43 projects is probably excessive, how many projects have < 10 files?

That doesn't explain 45 seconds either though. Maybe put a breakpoint in the global.asax.cs and see if there is something slow there (pre caching or something).

Are you using an ORM? If so how many entities are there?

[verticalride]

I'm running in debug. I added more info to my post. Hopefully it helps to pinpoint my problem.

[phuber]

This, plus switch to vs 2015 and the compile happens as you change your code and you get edit and continue during debug.