IIS 6.0: IIS Admin Service Does Not Start After Upgrade

When you upgrade from Windows 2000 with Internet Information Services (IIS) to Windows Server 2003, the IIS Admin Service may not start. If you try to start the IIS services manually, you receive the following error message: You receive the following message in the Manage Your Server Wizard, even if the server is not part of a cluster: The following errors are logged in the system event log:

Event ID: 7023
Source: Service Control Manager
Description: The IIS Admin Service service terminated with the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.
Event ID: 7001
Source: Service Control Manager
Description: The World Wide Web Publishing Service service depends on the IIS Admin Service service which failed to start because of the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

This may occur if permissions on the \Inetpub\Adminscripts directory deny full control to the System account.

Because Metabase.bin was not converted to Metabase.xml, there is currently no known way to preserve configuration settings in IIS.

Note Renaming or deleting the Adminscripts directory before upgrade does not cause this behavior.

To resolve this problem, restore full control of the \Inetpub\Adminscripts folder to the local system account, and then remove and reinstall IIS:

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click the \Inetpub\Adminscripts directory.
2. Click Sharing and Security. On the Security tab, if the local system account is not listed, add it and grant the account full control.
3. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Add/Remove Programs.
4. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
5. Double-click Application Server, click to clear the Internet Information Services (IIS) check box, click OK, and then click Next to remove IIS.
6. If you are prompted, restart the server.
7. In the Application Server section of Add/Remove Windows Components, click to select the Internet Information Services (IIS)check box to reinstall IIS.

This specific error may occur because the Inetpub\Adminscripts folder does not have sufficient permissions for the System account. However, other problems may occur if other folders do not allow full control for the System account.

By default, the System account has full control of all directories and files. Removing the System account from file and folder permissions may result in unexpected behavior and is not recommended.