You receive a "W3wp.exe could not be started" error message in the application event log when you view an ASP.NET page (833444)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft ASP.NET (included with the .NET Framework 1.1)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to view a page in a Microsoft ASP.NET application on Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0, you may receive the following error message:

Server Application Unavailable
The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the "Refresh" button in your web browser to retry your request.

Administrator Note: An error message detailing the cause of this specific request failure can be found in the system event log of the web server. Please review this log entry to discover what caused this error to occur.
Note The word "Web" is capitalized incorrectly two times in the error message.

The following error message also appears in the application event log:
w3wp.exe could not be started. HRESULT for the failure: 80070005

CAUSE

This problem occurs because the Network Service account does not have the correct user rights for the required system files and folders to run the ASP.NET worker process.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, make sure that the Network Service account has the correct user rights as follows:
  • %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\Version\Temporary ASP.NET Files: Full Control
  • %windir%\Temp: Full Control
  • Application folder: Read
  • %installroot% hierarchy (for example, %windir%\Microsoft.Net\Framework\Version): Read
  • %windir%\Assembly: Read

    Note This is the global assembly cache. You cannot directly use Windows Explorer to edit ACLs for this folder. Instead, open a command window, and then run the following command:

    cacls %windir%\assembly /e /t /p domain\useraccount:R

    Alternatively, before you use Windows Explorer, run the following command to unregister the Shfusion.dll library:

    regsvr32-u shfusion.dll

    After you set user rights in Windows Explorer, run the following command to re-register the Shfusion.dll library:

    regsvr32 shfusion.dll

  • Web site root (for example, %root%\Inetpub\Wwwroot) or the path that the default Web site points to: Read
  • %windir%\System32: Read

    Typically, the Network Service account has already been granted user rights as a member of the Users group.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

REFERENCES

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

811320 You receive an "Aspnet_wp.exe could not be started" error message when you view an ASP.NET page

317012 Information about process and request identity in ASP.NET

For more information about security and ASP.NET, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/secnetlpmsdn.asp

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:7/8/2005
Keywords:kberrmsg kbWebForms kbWebServer kbEventLog kbSecurity kbprb KB833444 kbAudDeveloper
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