Setting .htm intro/splash page via IIS' default doc setting works locally, but not on remote host

Hoping for a simple solution here (i.e. not having to change any source code).

I want the file index.htm to display as a splash page when visitors initially come to our website (actually, I don't want to do this, but my client insists on having a splash/intro page).

I have this a development copy of the website running on a local box with Win Server 2003, and was able to achieve this simply in IIS by setting the Default Documents like this:
index.htm
Default.aspx

This works!

However, when I upload to site to the live, production host (shared hosting), and set the default documents the same way, the index.htm page is ignored and the Default.aspx page is always loaded.

Why would it behave differently on the live site, and more importantly, is there a setting  somewhere else to change. I've seen posts about needing to change the source code to achieve this, but it doesn't seem like this should have to be done when the intro/splash page is .htm, not .aspx (i.e. because the ASP.NET engine shouldn't even be involved when loading .htm).

Any suggestions? I can't be the only one facing this!

By Splash screen you mean popup?
You can add some javascript to default.aspx to do it  window.open()

Nope, not a popup.

The index.htm is just a big ol' graphic that's a pretty picture of their physical store. If you click anywhere on the graphic, it then takes you to the nopCommerce's "real" home page of Default.aspx.

Personally, I hate this kind of page, but the client's insisting on it.

Essentially, here's what should happen:
1. User browses to www.example.com
2. IIS fetches index.htm, because it's the 1st item in the site's Default documents setting.
3. User clicks a hyperlink on the index.htm page that goes to Default.aspx
4. nopCommerce's home page is loaded.

Again, this is the way it works on our local development/testing box, running IIS 6/Win Server 2003.

At the web host, however, the Default.aspx page is loaded.

You should be able to set the precedence of index.htm and Default.aspx at your web host. It should be listed under "Directory Indexes" and the first index you list should take precedence.

maybe Default.aspx is set as default page in web.config

To recap, on our local, production box, running Windows Server 2003, we set the "default doc" order to:
1. index.htm
2. Default.aspx

The index.htm page (our splash page) is displayed when browsing the local server.

The remote, production server is also running Win Server 2003, with the same default doc order set. On it, browsing the website displays the Default.aspx page.

I've since noticed that the local server's website is set to run ASP.NET 3.5, but the remote, "misbehaving" server was running ASP.NET 4.0. I changed the remote server to run ASP.NET 3.5, and viola, it's now "behaving!"

Not sure what's different between ASP.NET 3.5 & 4.0 that would affect the handling of default docs like this, but though I'd share my findings, in case anybody else runs into this.

I just upgraded my site from ver 1.6 to 1.9 and therefore also had to upgrade the hosting to ASP.NET 4.0. This caused the problem to come back again.

To recap, nopCommerce seems to be hard-coded somewhere to use Default.aspx as the default document. It appears to completely ignore the "Default Document" list and priority that's set in IIS.

In fact, as a test, I just set it so that the ONLY file name listed under IIS' default documents list is index.htm. nopCommerce is STILL redirecting to the home page of /Default.aspx instead of just displaying the default document.

So, if you browse to the site without specifying a file, like this http://www.cdajewelry.com/ you get redirected to http://www.cdajewelry.com/default.aspx even though default.aspx is NOT listed as a default document in IIS.

What we want (and what worked under nopCommerce ver 1.6 running under ASP.NET 3.5) is for the index.htm page (the only default document) to be displayed instead: http://www.cdajewelry.com/index.htm
Any ideas on how to get the home page to use the default doc of index.htm?

Could this be related to the URL rewriting described here? https://www.nopcommerce.com/boards/t/5001/site-is-redirecting-to-defaultaspx-and-not-staying-on-site-root.aspx