IIS: Error Message When You Try to Open the IIS Manager Locally (311861)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0
This article was previously published under Q311861
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you try to open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager snap-in locally on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, you may receive the following error message:
Unable to enumerate web sites because the following error occurred: An internal error occurred.
No error appears in the event log when this occurs, and you can connect from another computer to this server without error.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if a registry key exists that modifies the default behavior of the cryptography application programming interfaces (APIs). In this case, the cryptography APIs cannot create the public and private encryption keysets that are necessary to query the metabase.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click Run, and then type regedit to start Registry Editor.
  2. Browse to the following registry key, and then click Providers:

    HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Cryptography\Providers\Type 001

  3. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File, and then type the location in which you want to save this file. You can use this file if you must restore this registry key later.
  4. Press DELETE to remove the Providers key, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the registry key.
  5. Reboot the server.

MORE INFORMATION

To obtain a more descriptive error message for this problem, log on to the computer with an account that is currently experiencing the problem.

The following is a test to determine if the account can successfully query the metabase:
  1. Open a command prompt and change to the C:\Inetpub\Adminscripts folder.
  2. At the command line, type cscript adsutil.vbs enum w3svc. If this command is successful, it enumerates the settings for the w3svc key in the metabase. If the command is not successful, you receive the -2146893792 (0x80090020) error code.

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

313494 Microsoft Cryptography API May Not Work if the Default CSP Has Been Set Incorrectly

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:6/25/2004
Keywords:kbpending kbprb KB311861
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