IIS Express will not start

Question

I'm just putting this one out there since its a Google Zero-resulter which means I win a prize?

Cannot start IIS Express 7.5 after reinstall from one account, but I can when logged-in under my other domain account.

What's odd is that the account it fails under is my 'super' account with local admin rights, and is also the account I installed it under.

The error stems from diprestr.dll not loading...

C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express>iisexpress.exe /trace:error
Starting IIS Express ...
Initializing the W3 Server Started CTC = 2068729
W3 Server initializing WinSock.  CTC = 2068744
W3 Server WinSock initialized.  CTC = 2068744
W3 Server ThreadPool initialized (ipm has signalled).  CTC = 2068744
Failed to load global module C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\diprestr.dll
Failed processing with hr = 8007007e
Error loading global modules.  hr = 8007007e
Terminating W3_SERVER object
Start listenerChannel http:0
Initializing the W3 Server Started CTC = 2069774
W3 Server initializing WinSock.  CTC = 2069774
W3 Server WinSock initialized.  CTC = 2069774
W3 Server ThreadPool initialized (ipm has signalled).  CTC = 2069774
Failed to load global module C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\diprestr.dll
Failed processing with hr = 8007007e
Error loading global modules.  hr = 8007007e
Terminating W3_SERVER object
InitComplete event signalled
Report ListenerChannel stopped due to failure; ProtocolId:http, ListenerChannelId:0
Process Model Shutdown called
Failed to start 'HostedWASStart'.  Error = 38246848
HostableWebCore activation failed.
Unable to start iisexpress.

The specified module could not be found.
For more information about the error, run iisexpress.exe with the tracing switch enabled (/trace:error).

Any got any ideas? I'll try Process Monitor and see.

So far, IIS Express is proving to be just another thing to learn and go wrong.

Answer 1

To clarify John's comment - the directory will be something like C:\users\jmitchell\My Documents\IISExpress\config. I assume John is correct in that if it doesn't exist you would need to create the directory.

Alternatively the directory could already exist and just be corrupted. This is what I believe happened in my case. I had previously installed WebMatrix but ran into all sorts of issues today. After uninstalling IIS Express, Web Platform Installer, WebMatrix, and some SQL Server Management Objects, and then reinstalling WPI & WebMatrix, I came across this post.

I actually got IIS Express to run successfully after deleting the config directory mentioned above, and then re-running C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express>iisexpress.exe /trace:error

And I ONLY wasted two hours of my day on this! Thanks Microsoft!