After Windows 7 SP1 IIS errors with "Invalid application path"

Question

I'm getting this new, strange error message in IIS after updating Windows 7 (x64) with SP1.

Open the IIS Manager
Browse to an exisiting Virtual Application (or create a new one)
Open its Basic Settings dialog
Click Test Settings
The error message comes up

It's happening with new Applications and also with ones that were already there (and without that problem) before.

The applications themselves continue to work.

Has anybody figured this one out yet?

What path is your website root set to? * Does the path exist? * Does your IIS user have access to the path? * Try adding a simple .gif to the path. Can you access it? * If successful, try an ASP.NET page. Does it work? — erikbra, May 16 '11 at 22:15
@Erik, there are no problems opening the site in the browser, seeing the pages of images. The problem I'm asking about is in the IIS Manager. — , May 18 '11 at 13:57
But, what does the error message say? Are you sure you're not using Integrated Security, and the IIS Manager is unable to test this, as you're not authenticated when running through IIS Manager? — erikbra, May 18 '11 at 19:15

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 10 '11 at 20:52

4

Doublecheck that your specific version of ASP.NET is allowed in IIS as follows:

Select the top (root) server in IIS Manager.
Doubleclick ISAPI and CGI Restrictions.
If your version of ASP.NET is Not Allowed, right click and Allow it.

This solved it for me, hope it works for you too.

answered Jun 10 '11 at 20:52

Greg Buntz

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Thank you. Many questions come out of this. I wonder why they make this the default. Why isn't this the first answer when looking up this error? the list goes on. – Brad Bruce Jun 19 '14 at 15:05

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 12:20

1

I had the same problem, solved by giving explicit permissions to IIS_IUSRS in the folder where my application is.

answered Mar 14 '11 at 12:20

What explicit permission did you give. I tried giving it Full Control and it didn't help. Just to be clear, I had all the right permissions before Win7-SP1. Clicking Test Settings back then used to work just fine. – Mar 15 '11 at 16:50
Just Read, nothing fancy... – Mar 21 '11 at 00:33

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 13 '11 at 19:32

1

I had same problem, here is my solution.

Check the application pool your application is using.
Click on application pool and click on Advanced settings, will lead to new window.
Check the .NET Framework version
Set Load User Profile to True
Set ping enabled to True

edited Jul 13 '11 at 19:32

Ben Pilbrow

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answered Jul 13 '11 at 19:21

Kapil Sharma

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 06 '12 at 10:04

1

Something that worked for me was to Allow 32bit applications on the applicationpool.

It seem that the application I ran was a 32bit one

HTH

answered Feb 06 '12 at 10:04

Saariko

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 27 '13 at 12:56

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Within IIS in the "Advanced settings" of the Application Pool(s), under "General" there is an "Enable 32-Bit Applications" setting. When I set that to True, this error went away for me.

edited Mar 27 '13 at 12:56

Phil Eddies

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answered Mar 24 '11 at 16:02

I had tried that already. Tried again. Made no difference. – May 18 '11 at 13:59

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 25 '11 at 13:25

0

I still haven’t find a solution, but find a workaround.

You can manually change IIS configuration, in system32\intsrv\config\applicationHost.config. Just manually create (copy-paste) section in and .

answered May 25 '11 at 13:25

Alexander Beletsky

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Your answer seems to be missing information. Might want to fix that, or remove it, if you don't want to be down-voted. – Remi Despres-Smyth Apr 04 '13 at 13:07

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 03 '13 at 20:11

IMHO ... This test is of little value unless you want to test a specific user and even then it's marginal ... to add user accounts to folders to allow this test to work (as others stated) marginalizes your security... better to not have this test then to add users to folders and jeopardize your security in any way, shape or form...

As long as your site works... that should be your benchmark...

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 22 '19 at 22:27

This is really seems like a bug in the IIS user interface: When "Application user (pass through authentication)" is selected the web site is expecting a browser to send user credentials from the currently logged on user. The site will then load because "anonymous" authentication is enabled for the site. However when testing through the IIS MMC, "Test Settings..." button no credentials are being presented to be used for directory access hence you see that "Invalid application path" error message in the IIS MMC. If you click "Browse.... then the default browser on the web server, usually Internet Explorer, will present your credentials. In most circumstances you can ignore this bug your web site works.

After Windows 7 SP1 IIS errors with "Invalid application path"

8 Answers8