IIS error when attempting to start WebMatrix

5
votes

When I attempt to start WebMatrix, I get an alert saying "IIS Express could not be initialized. Please make sure that it is installed and configured correctly."

I've uninstalled and reinstalled both IIS Express and WebMatrix, with no change in this behavior. The advice I've been able to find on the net has been to assume ownership of the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.IIS.VersionManager registry key and replace all child object permissions with the permissions from that registry key. This didn't seem to help.

Looking in Event Viewer, I can see .net runtime exceptions whenever iisexpresstray.exe or webmatrix.exe try to launch:

  • System

    • Provider [ Name] .NET Runtime
    • EventID 1026 [ Qualifiers] 0 Level 2 Task 0 Keywords 0x80000000000000
    • TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2012-09-29T21:28:02.000000000Z EventRecordID 162768 Channel Application Security

  • EventData Application: iisexpresstray.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.ArgumentNullException >Stack: at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(System.Object) at Microsoft.Web.VersionManager.IisExpressVersion.Dispose(Boolean) at Microsoft.Web.VersionManager.IisVersion.Finalize()

I would greatly appreciate any help in diagnosing and fixing this issue. WebMatrix is going to be almost essential to a project I have coming up soon. Thanks!

2
iis-7.5webmatrix
i'm just guessing, but maybe uninstalling and re-installing the dot net framework? – Knox
Did you already try to disable the HttpLoggingModule like described in stackoverflow.com/questions/6171656/…? – AardVark71
I tried disabling the logging module, that didn't help. I note that the fellow in that post seems to be having a slightly different problem. I'm able to launch IIS Express from the console without any errors, but the tray icon crashes immediately, and WebMatrix doesn't seem to see it. – Will

2 Answers

6
votes

For some reason, installing IIS 8 Express fixed the problem.

0
votes

Just wanted to note that I too had this problem. Based on a previous suggestion, I downloaded IIS 8 Express. It did not install but gave me a chance to repair (so I assume WebMatrix installed it). I selected the repair button and restarted WebMatrix. I am no longer getting the aforementioned error.