I'm trying to understand how RouteExistingFiles works. So I've created a new MVC 3 internet project (MVC 4 behaves the same way) and put a HTMLPage.html file to the Content folder of my project. Now I went to the Global.Asax file and edited the RegisterRoutes function so it looks like this:

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
    routes.RouteExistingFiles = true; //Look for routes before looking if a static file exists

    routes.MapRoute(
            "Default", // Route name
            "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
            new {controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional} // Parameter defaults
            );
    }

Now it should give me an error when I'm requesting a localhost:XXXX/Content/HTMLPage.html since there's no "Content" controller and the request definitely hits the default pattern. But instead I'm seeing my HTMLPage. What am I doing wrong here?

Update: I think I'll have to give up. Even if I'm adding a route like this one:

routes.MapRoute("", "Content/{*anything}", new {controller = "Home", action = "Index"});

it still shows me the content of the HTMLPage. When I request a url like ~/Content/HTMLPage I'm getting the Index page as expected, but when I add a file extenstion like .html or .txt the content is shown (or a 404 error if the file does not exist). If anyone can check this in VS2012 please let me know what result you're getting. Thank you.