IIS on my development computer stopped working. I just installed the latest update to windows 10 (1803) and now when I try to start the "Windows Process Activation Service" I get an "Windows could not start the Windows Process Activation Service on Local computer. Error 2: The System cannot find the file specified" error. Things I have already tried:
Reinstalled IIS and Windows Process Activation Service, several times
I verified that I do have a "C:\inetpub\temp\appPools" folder
Not sure what to do next.
I have had this problem twice after a windows update. The issue seems to be, that windows adds an incorrect parameter to the WAS service startup parameters. I fixed the issue using the following steps:
Start regedit (just type it into start)
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS\Parameters
Delete the NanoSetup variable. This variable is preventing WAS from starting
Start the WAS service using task manager or by typing "net start WAS" in Command Prompt
Start the W3SVC service the same way
You can now start your website in IIS again
I had the same problem and nothing in here was the solution for me for a long time. So i rolled back windows also. Today i found the solution working for me - Navigate to:
C:\Users\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys\
find these 3 Key-files...
d6d986f09a1ee04e24c949879fdb506c_*
76944fb33636aeddb9590521c2e8815a_*
6de9cb26d2b98c01ec4e9e8b34824aa2_*
... then in Security-Settings:
first, you have to set your User as OWNER
close Properties Dialog - and open again
Then in ACL set "full controll" for SYSTEM
After that: WPA can be started...
Hope this helps; see also thread here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/315841e1-b8b2-4084-8224-580ef3d13420/upgrade-to-windows-10-1709-iis-fails?forum=win10itprosetup
I had this same problem after installing the Windows 10 1909 update and the nanosetup variable was NOT in the registry. I ended up doing a variation of Sascha's fix.
I took ownership and gave administrators full control of the MachineKeys folder in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA. Then I removed the 3 files in Machinekeys that begin with:
d6d986f09a1ee04e24c949879fdb506c_*
76944fb33636aeddb9590521c2e8815a_*
6de9cb26d2b98c01ec4e9e8b34824aa2_*
The Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) started as expected.
It just has a simple solution, you don't need to reinstall Windows or removing updates, It worked for me so sharing it with all of you,
if you already using IIS and have site's configurations and files in C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config and C:\inetpub\wwwroot, Back up all files from the folder C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config and C:\inetpub\wwwroot, if you are installing ISS for the first time then you don't need to have a back up.
On Taskbar right-click on Start button select 'Run', type appwiz.cpl hit Enter.Click on 'Turn Windows features on or off'.
Uncheck 'Internet Information Services' and 'Windows Process Activation Service' click OK button.
After restarting Windows, Delete 'inetpub' folder on C: drive.
Open 'Turn Windows features on or off window' again.
Check 'Internet Information Services' and 'Windows Process Activation Service' click OK button.
After restarting Windows open folder C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config.
Right click on the file named 'applicationHost' Select Open with Notepad.
In Notepad, Copy all the content of the file.
Select New in File Menu and Paste all the content in the new file.
Save this file in C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config with the name 'applicationHost.config.tmp', Don't forget choosing 'All Files' in the 'Save as type' box.
Otherwise, file will be saved as applicationHost.config.tmp.txt which will not work.
Type 'Services.msc' in Run, Find 'Windows Process Activation Service' in Services window.
Watch running the service successfully without any errors after clicking on start.
I finally had to give up and rollback the windows build. To do this follow these steps:
Go to settings (Windows+I)
Click on "Update & Security"
On the left click on "Recovery"
Then under "Go back to the previous version of Windows 10" click "Get
started"
It rolled back to "1709" and now works fine.
If you find yourself installing an application on a drive other than C: and that application relies on IIS, the path for inetpub temporary files may be missing. Even if they are present on C:, this may just confuse you into thinking they are present and thus not the issue.
Create the following empty directory structure, replacing G: with the drive letter that your application is installed to, other than C:.
G:\inetpub\temp\apppools
Then, start WAS, from an administrator command prompt:
net start WAS
If this has to do with IIS, restart for good measure, from the same prompt:
IISRESET /restart
This solved my problem when installing a third party application.
I received the same error after update, but on Windows Server 2022 Standard 21h2.
Tried all steps without success.
In my case WU deleted all params in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS\Parameters
so i took it from old ControlSet002:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS\Parameters]
"AccessDeniedMessage"="Error: Access is Denied."
"InstallPath"=hex(2):25,00,77,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,69,00,72,00,25,00,5c,00,73,\
00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,69,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,\
73,00,72,00,76,00,00,00
"MajorVersion"=dword:0000000a
"MinorVersion"=dword:00000000
"ServiceDll"=hex(2):25,00,77,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,69,00,72,00,25,00,5c,00,73,\
00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,69,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,\
73,00,72,00,76,00,5c,00,69,00,69,00,73,00,77,00,33,00,61,00,64,00,6d,00,2e,\
00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"GenerateKeys"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS\Parameters\ListenerAdapters]
Situation
After the latest Windows 10 updates (Nov 2017) were installed, the Application Pool required by a local web application keeps stopping/crashing displaying the message below in Event Viewer:
The worker process for application pool 'SrvAppPoolv4.0'
encountered an error 'Cannot read configuration file ' trying to read
configuration data from file '\\?\<EMPTY>', line number '0'. The data
field contains the error code.
Setup
Windows 10
Internet Information Services (Version 10.0.16299.15)
What I've tried
I've tried a few things that I've found via Google, both here on Stackoverflow and other sites, nothing has helped so far. Some of what I've tried:
Changed the AppPool Identity to a different user (Right-click, Advanced Settings).
Checked the permissions on the machine.config (all four of them in the various \Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\.. and ..\Framework64\.. folders).
Unchecked the IIS and .NET features (Control Panel / Windows Features) and then added them back in again.
Uninstalled the application in question, cleared everything, then re-installed it.
Nothing has helped.
Besides reinstalling the entire machine, what else can I try?
Also, besides the Event Viewer, are there any other logs I can review to get more details? I read something about an application log, but nothing as to where to find it?
Update:
I just tried what user3739842 suggested Add/Remove Programs, selecting IIS Express and then Repair - issue remains.
Solution
For me the solution was the following (thanks rusware):
Go to the drive your IIS is installed on, eg. C:\inetpub\temp\appPools\
Delete the directory (or virtual directory) with the same name as your app pool.
Recycle/Start your app pool again.
In my case, it was a virtual directory which was corrupted.
Hi the answer to your problem can be found here. It worked for me and same error
Cannot read configuration file ' trying to read configuration data from file '\\?\<EMPTY>', line number '0'.
I am getting strange and annoying behavior in one (yes, only one) of my RStudio projects. Whenever I restart the R session within this project, I can no longer save any of the files, and when I try to (or RStudio tries to automatically) I get a popup error saying "The system cannot find the file specified" and I have to reopen the project and all of the R scripts.
I looked at the log file, and I see a lot of the following error:
07 Oct 2015 00:52:05 [rsession-Mark] ERROR system error 5 (Access is denied) [path=C:/Users/Mark/GoogleDrive/Research/CEQUAL_event/.Rproj.user/5E5F98D9/sdb/s-26E44539/lock_file];
OCCURRED AT: bool rstudio::core::FilePath::exists() const C:\Users\Administrator\rstudio\src\cpp\core\FilePath.cpp:308;
LOGGED FROM: bool rstudio::core::FilePath::exists() const C:\Users\Administrator\rstudio\src\cpp\core\FilePath.cpp:308
It looks like the problem may be in the .Rproj.user folder. So I deleted that and let RStudio regenerate it, but the behavior started right back up again.
I am using Windows 7, RStudio version 0.99.441, and R version 3.2.2.
I think #Jack Wasey is right: Google drive locks files during sync. This causes many issues with other programs as well. There are alternatives from companies that do file syncing for a living, such as dropbox, whose clients don't lock files. With google drive you only have the option to use selective sync and exclude every .Rproj.user folder. Once the RStudio's database is corrupted, moving the project out of the Google drive folder won't be enough - you will need to delete/rename it to have RStudio fix its database.
Summary:
Copy contents from all unsaved files to a temp file outside of RStudio (while clicking away the error message every other second)
Quit Rstudio
Pause Google drive syncing
Rename (or move/delete) the hidden .Rproj.user folder in your project
Reopen the project in Rstudio
Exclude the new .Rproj.user folder from syncing with Google drive (Preferences -> sync only these folders)
Remember that Google drive is free / Become an awesome google developer and fix the issue once and for all
May not be related but might be helpful to someone else. I was getting the same error (over and over) and finally realized that I had an R session open from days ago, that had eventually gotten stuck. It was running in the background with a "Fatal Error" message waiting for me to click OK. When I closed that session everything started working again.
This was happening to me as well, but curiously only when I was using Project files (.Rproj - not stand alone R scripts). It was driving me crazy.
I found that buried in the settings (Tools -> Global Options -> Git/SVN) there was a setting "Enable Version Control Interface for RStudio Projects). I guess I had turned that option on when I was messing with my settings and then forgot about it since I don't normally use project files.
What worked for me was I noticed DescTools package I installed caused it, though it served the purpose I installed it - fetched me mode value without going through mode functions. I then deleted the line I got the install.package, re-saved the project (ctrl S) and I could knit it.
Bottom line, read the error message soon as the box pops up, it's going to give you a hint of what line is causing the issue.
I hope this works. Enjoy
After the last windows Security Update (Oct 17, 2014) my MVC 5 solution (System.Web.Mvc) started misbehaving. I'm using VisualStudio 2013. Thanks to the help I received in here I fixed the problem according to the instructions found on this page and that one.
However another problem has emerged. Everytime I debug my solution I got the following message:
C:\Program Files\IIS Express\ntdll.pdb: Cannot find or open the PDB file.
C:\Windows\System32\ntdll.pdb: Cannot find or open the PDB file.
I searched for the dll but I couldn't find it. In an attempt to solve the problem I emptied the Symbole cache and I reloaded all symbols from the Microsoft Symbol Servers in a new folder that I've created with read and write permissions. The problem remained.
In fact it's not an error because I can still run the solution by clicking on Continue and the website works well eventhough the ntdll.pdb is not found. How can I overcome this problem and how can I recover the ntdll.pdb?
Thanks
I think your solution resides here, which is the "Understanding symbol files and Visual Studio’s symbol settings" page. It describes how to configure VS's settings for using symbol files/where they're stored.
Additionally, you can acquire system PDB's for multiple versions of windows directly from MSDN, this is useful for remote debugging scenarios (production environments, or those with multiple host operating systems which need to be debugged.)
Ideally you would want to set up your own symbol store(s) and configure visual studio accordingly.
This is really frustrating me. I file I have continually gets recreated, but not really. It appears in my project, it appears in Windows Explorer, but I can't open it, it says the file doesn't exist. If I try to delete it, it says it cannot find the item, BUT if I try to delete it, it says it failed, then refresh, the file is gone. But if I go back into my project and refresh the directory, it shows up again both in the project and explorer.
Now I've read this can be caused if you have low RAM and are doing a lot of operations, however I've got 16gb ram and just am using one instance of VS, so that can't be it. I've also read that restarting the computer helps. Well when I restart, I can see the file there sometimes, sometimes not. If it's there I can F5 and it's gone. BUT as soon as I either try an SVN update (even though it doesn't update/add anything in the svn log box), or try and build the project, or just refresh the directory from within visual studio again, the ghost file appears.
This is preventing me from publishing the website because every time I go to publish it, it throws an error telling me that ghost file is missing. But there is no file indicator in the error message and searching the entire solution for any references to it returns no results...so I am at a loss for what to do.
My best suggestion is to create a new Web Site project in a different folder and copy the files over. It sounds like your project file is damaged.
Alternatively, this could be caused by Adding an existing item as a Link, which by default doesn't get included when you publish a (web) project.