I just installed VS2013 and turned on IIS 7 on my Windows 7 Ultimate x64 machine. When trying to open a solution I get:
Creation of the virtual directory localhost:xxxxx failed with the error: Unable to access the IIS metabase. You do not have sufficient privilege to access IIS web sites on your machine.
I tried running Visual Studio 2013 as Administrator (right click, run as administrator), still the same error. I also did aspnet_regiis -i and it didn't help either.
Go to C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv. Click config folder. You will get a popup - "You don't have access to this folder - Click continue to permanently get access to this folder". Perform same for Export folder which is inside config folder. You should be able to open the solution and the web application project will be deployed on IIS.
The root cause of this error for me was that IIS was installing the config folder on a network shared drive at my workplace. I had to change this to use a local drive and it fixed it.
IIS creates an IISExpress folder in your %USER_HOME%/Documents folder (which for me was a shared drive)
For me this issue was solved by uninstalling IIS, and clearing everything IIS related in the registry. I then had to change my Documents drive in Registry (KHCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders) from a shared drive to a local drive (C:\Users[profile]\Documents).
Then reinstall IIS. It should create an IISExpress in the new Documents folder.
In Windows 8, you have to right-click devenv.exe and select "Troubleshoot compatibility".
select "Troubleshoot Program"
check "The program requires additional permissions"
click "Next", click "Test the program..."
wait for the program to launch
click "Next"
select "Yes, save these settings for this program"
click "Close"
I had tried each of the steps recommended and didn't work. So, my last resource was to review the registry to find out if my user was pointing to a temp or cache folder. Some posts were suggesting to check on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; but those were. So, I finally found it by going into the HKEY_CURRENT_USER as recommended by boilers222:
Opened registry (CTRL-R, regedit, OK)
Navigated to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\
Found the Personal key was pointing to "\OurServer\RedirectedFolders\MyName\MyDocuments"
Selected the Personal key, right clicked on it, and selected Modify
Entered a location pointing to my user's documents file: "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\"
Clicked OK and closed the registry editor
When I opened Visual Studio and opened my solution, it loaded without the "unable to access the IIS metabase" error.
Try running VS as admin. If it does not work check if you have IIS metabase folder permission. Open up windows explorer (Win + e). Type the following to address bar:
win 7, win 8.1, win 10 %systemroot%\System32\inetsrv\config
win 8 professional %systemroot%\inetsrv\config
Allow access if needed. Go into \Export\ folder and allow access again.
Source here
The highest voted answer here did not work for me. I've recently upgraded to Windows 10 (ungh) and when I went to:
C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv
...I did not get a permissions pop up. Further more when I tried to change the permissions manually, most of the options were not available or greyed out.
The end fix was to click into each folder individually inside the inetsrv directory. When I did this I received a pop up for each folder where I could gain access.
Restarted VS and voilà!
I encountered similar problem. I had not installed IIS yet. 1. I installed IIS. 2. I used aspnet_regiis tool (with -i) to enable Asp.Net on IIS. 3. Tried to load existing web app project. (FAILED with same error) 4. I reset IIS service. 5. I opened VS2013 as administrator and loaded the existing web app project (Succeeded) 6. The virtual directory created on IIS successfully.
I think the key is the Aspnet_regiis IIS reset and IIS service reset steps.
On Windows 10 running Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition, here are the steps I followed:
Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features on or off... inside that, we had to select Internet Information Services -> Web Management Tools -> IIS 6 Management Compatibility -> IIS Metabse and IIS 6 configuration compatibility.
select "Troubleshoot Program" check "The program requires additional permissions" click "Next", click "Test the program..." wait for the program to launch click "Next" select "Yes, save these settings for this program" click "Close"
Go to C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv. Click config folder. You will get a popup - "You don't have access to this folder - Click continue to permanently get access to this folder". Perform same for Export folder which is inside config folder.
Then it finally got past the permission issue.
