title: Cannot start Windows process activation service on Windows 10
body: <p>After upgrading from Windows&nbsp;7 Pro x64 to Windows&nbsp;10 Pro x64, I cannot start IIS. Most of the Windows&nbsp;10 system works fine. Some study tells me that the primary problem is that the Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) will not start.</p>
  
  <p>I have another machine that upgraded to Windows&nbsp;10 with IIS fine (Windows&nbsp;7 Home Premium x64 up to Windows&nbsp;10 Home Premium x64).
  The IIS on that machine works OK (it only serves one website; so simpler setup.)</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>I have had NO LUCK finding anything on the Internet that resolves this.</li>
  <li>I tried using the clean.iinstall IIS config files (no improvement).</li>
  <li>I tried uninstalling IIS - uninstall failed and rolled back (see below).</li>
  <li>I tried uninstalling WAS - uninstall failed, and rolled back.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>DETAILS:</p>
  
  <p>My first error trying to run IIS Manager program:</p>
  
  <pre><code>One or more problems have been detected during IIS upgrade. As a precaution,
  one or more IIS services have been disabled. Please review the following error message:
  
  Data loss has occurred - You upgraded your operating system or switched from one Windows SKU
  to another SKU, and data from the previous installation of IIS has been lost or copied incorrectly.
  As a result, the services W3SVC and MSFTPSVC have been disabled. Before enabling these services,
  you should review the latest IIS 7.0 compatibility information.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(The link to see the IIS 7.0 compatibility information was a dead link.)</p>
  
  <p>I decided to give it a try despite the compatibility warning. I started the services IIS, MSFTP, WAS and W3SVC (depends on WAS), then tried to start IIS Manager.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Failed to connect
  There was an error when trying to connect. Do you want to retype your credentials and try again?
  
  Details:
  Creating an instance of the COM component with CLSID {2B72133B-3F5B-4602-8952-803546CE3344}
  from the IClassFactry failed due to the following error: 800700b7
  Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700B7).
  </code></pre>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>FACTS:</p>
  
  <p>The IIS configuration files exist with non-zero length; they look coherent.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv\Config</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>ApplicationHost.config</li>
  <li>Administration.config</li>
  <li><p>Redirection.config</p></li>
  <li><p>I have a backup that I made that should be good (not just the automatic backups).</p></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li>machine.config exists ok:    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Config\machine.config</li>
  <li>The appPools folder exists:     C:\inetpub\temp\appPools</li>
  <li>The upgrade changed IIS from v7.5 to v10.0.10240.16384</li>
  <li>This machine has one user account (me) and the account is marked Administrator.</li>
  <li>My previous Windows&nbsp;7 Pro with IIS 7.5 worked FINE for several years. IIS was giving no trouble before the upgrade.</li>
  <li>I can use other network stuff OK: Internet, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Outlook</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PuTTY" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PuTTY</a>, MySQL Workbench (remote &amp; local), and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileZilla" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FileZilla</a>.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Trying to start the Microsoft FTP service, or run appcmd or start W3SVC or WAS all give the same error:
      Error 183: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.</p>
  
  <p>appcmd list backup --> failed (running as Admin)
      ERROR ( hresult:800700b7, message:Command execution failed.
      Cannot create a file when that file already exists.)</p>
  
  <p>Event Log after error starting WAS:
      The configuration manager for Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) did not initialize.
      The data field contains the error number.
      error # = B7000780</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I used the MS error lookup tool:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>To see the appcmd error ( 800700b7)</p>
  
  <h1>for hex 0x800700b7 / decimal -2147024713 :</h1>
  
  <p>STIERR_HANDLEEXISTS          stierr.h</p>
  
  <h1>1 matches found for "800700b7"</h1></li>
  <li><p>To see the WAS error (B7000780)</p>
  
  <h1>as an HRESULT: Severity: FAILURE (1), Facility: 0x1700, Code 0x780</h1>
  
  <h1>for hex 0x780 / decimal 1920 :</h1>
  
  <p>SQL_1920_severity_10                          sql_err</p>
  
  <h1>Skipping rebuild of index ID %d, which is on a read-only</h1>
  
  <h1>filegroup.</h1>
  
  <p>ERROR_CANT_ACCESS_FILE                        winerror.h</p>
  
  <h1>The file can not be accessed by the system.</h1>
  
  <h1>2 matches found for "b7000780"</h1></li>
  </ul>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I tried to uninstall IIS: 11/25
      - uninstalled in windows features
      - system did the work, I restarted system
      - main system booted ok; then it treated the features
      - the features uninstall failed at about 85% of total work
          "We couldn't complete the features"
      - system did a rollback</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>At reboot time, (some) services statuses are:</p>
  
  <pre><code>IIS                runing  auto   IIS Admin Service (depends on HTTP service)
  MSFTP              off     auto   MS FTP Service (ftpsvc)
  W3SVC              off     auto   World Wide Web Publishing Service (depends on WAS)
  WAS                off     auto   Windows Process Activation Service
  NetMsmqActivator   off     Auto   Net.Msmq Listener Adapter
  NetPipeActivator   off     Auto   Net.Pipe Listener Adapter
  NetTcpActivator    off     Auto   Net.Tcp Listener Adapter
  AppHostSvc         off     Auto   Application Host Helper Service
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>==> THESE AUTO SERVICES ABOVE SHOULD BE RUNNING, BUT FAIL TO START PROBABLY DUE TO THE 'WAS' PROBLEM !</p>
  
  <p>HTTP service is hidden, running:</p>
  
  <p>sc queryex http ==> running</p>
  
  <p>RPC and its dependencies are all OK, running.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I tried to uninstall WAS windows feature:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>The system did the uninstall work, restarted, "could not complete features", rolled-back changes</li>
  </ul>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I ran process monitor, but I could not see anything particular to resolve.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>11/29 changed out the IIS configuration files, to use the clean.install versions:</p>
  
  <p>C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config</p>
  
  <p>I replaced applicationHost.config with applicationHost.config.clean.install (renamed it to the regular name)</p>
  
  <p>I replaced administration.config with administration.config.clean.install (renamed it to the regular name)</p>
  
  <p>I rebooted</p>
  
  <p>I still could not start FTP or WAS, so maybe it's not getting far enough to read the configuration files?</p>