Yes, I also believe this is what is happening. I did try to add that but removed it later as it didn't seem to work. Maybe I didn't do it correctly?

It's a bit clearer now what your requirement is. You are seeing a rewritten url because friendly urls are set - see https://dnnsupport.dnnsof...iendly-URL-Rewriting
Look at SiteUrls.config in root of web site. You might need to adjust or remove rules from there and add rules similar to your original rules into IIS.

This is the content of the file:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<RewriterConfig>
    <Rules>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>.*DesktopDefault.aspx(.*)</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/Default.aspx$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>.*EditModule.aspx(.*)</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/Default.aspx$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>.*/TabId/(\d+)(.*)/Logoff.aspx</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/Admin/Security/Logoff.aspx?tabid=$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>.*/TabId/(\d+)(.*)/rss.aspx</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/rss.aspx?TabId=$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>.*Telerik.RadUploadProgressHandler.ashx(.*)</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/Telerik.RadUploadProgressHandler.ashx$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>[^?]*/TabId/(\d+)(.*)</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/Default.aspx?TabId=$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
        <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>.*BannerClickThrough.aspx(.*)</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/DesktopModules/Admin/Banners/BannerClickThrough.aspx$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>
    </Rules>
</RewriterConfig>

I don't know which of the rules is interfering with the rewrite.

 

I tried to add the following but didn't work:

      <RewriterRule>
            <LookFor>^project/([^/]+)/?$</LookFor>
            <SendTo>~/project?id=$1</SendTo>
        </RewriterRule>