<p>I am working in Visual Studio 2008 on an ASP.NET application, which has been deployed to a test server.  I would like to make a build without debug information to place in production, but the configuration manager only shows "Debug" in the configuration dropdown for my project.</p>

<p>My other Visual Studio projects show "Debug", "Release", "New...", and "Edit...".</p>

<p>Why do I not see a release option, or the new and edit commands?</p>

The Configuration Manager for the Solution allows you to delete either (or both) of these default build configurations (through the Edit... option you mention above). I would bet that someone deleted the Release configuration.
You can get it back by recreating it, or copy the appropriate lines from a solution you make from scratch real quick. A file diff shows the following:
Default solution file:
```
```
GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
    Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU
    Release|Any CPU = Release|Any CPU
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
    {EDD50911-B94E-49A4-A08B-A2E91228A04B}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
    {EDD50911-B94E-49A4-A08B-A2E91228A04B}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
    {EDD50911-B94E-49A4-A08B-A2E91228A04B}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
    {EDD50911-B94E-49A4-A08B-A2E91228A04B}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
EndGlobalSection
```
```
Solution after I manually deleted the Release configuration:
```
```
GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
    Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
    {EDD50911-B94E-49A4-A08B-A2E91228A04B}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
    {EDD50911-B94E-49A4-A08B-A2E91228A04B}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
EndGlobalSection
```
```