Running an executable under IIS 8 64-bit?

Question

I have developed a web application that requires an .exe to be run server side to perform certain tasks. I have this working great under Visual Studio's built in web server however upon moving it across to IIS 8 (64-bit) it fails as the .exe is not run.

I understand that by default the Application Pool runs under a user account that cannot generate desktop windows therefore I've created an account on the server machine for the application to run as but this has had no effect.

I have also checked "Edit Feature Permissions" under the "Handler Mappings" section and ensured that it has the "Execute" permission.

This was simple under IIS 6, what has changed in IIS7/8 (64-bit)? If it helps my application is .NET based and the executable is run using "Process.Start"?

Answer 1

I have finally found out why this does not work, and there is a simple solution. Basically in the AppPool Advanced Settings there is a "Enable 32-bit Application" option, this needs to be set to True as per the below in order to run the 32-bit console application: