Visual Studio 2003 HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error

The following article is directed at people who are experiencing an HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error while using Visual Studio 2003.

The error message typically sounds something like:

The web server reported the following error when attempting to create or open the Web Project located at the Following URL:http://localhost/Webapplication1’.HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error’.

This error tends to rear it's ugly head when you're creating a new project after you've done a Windows Update or fresh Windows install. I'm not 100% sure why this error happens but it is quite common and can be quite frustrating to solve. What I think happens is that the .NET Framework is updated but isn't configured properly.

For instance:

• After a fresh Windows install, .NET Framework 1.0 and the ASPNET user account is created to work with this Framework.
  
• Then you go through all the Windows updates...which installs .NET Framework version 1.1 (and later versions), but the ASPNET user isn't updated to know how to use the newest version.

Keep in mind that if you are using Visual Studio 2003 to implement a web application, it uses the .NET Framework version 1.1. This means that if your server is configured to use version 2.0 (or later), you will encounter this error.

So, in trouble shooting this problem you should first check that you have .NET Framework 1.1 installed properly on your web server.

You can do this by:

1. Opening Control Pannel
2. Open Administrative Tools
3. Open Internet Information Services
4. Expand all the folders and find the "Default Web Site" folder (should look like a globe with a hand under it)
5. Right click on the "Default Web Site" and select Properties
6. Click the ASP .NET tab
7. Select the proper ASP .NET version (Version 1.1)
8. Click apply.

If this doesn't solve your problem you'll have to take some additional steps to re-create the ASPNET user account.

To fix this you'll need to recreate the ASPNET user and re-registered the .NET Framework version that you are using.

To do this:

1. delete the ASPNET Windows user
2. open a cmd window
3. go to the directory where your Framework 1.1 is installed
   (this is likely in your C:\Windows\Micr osoft.NET\Frame work\v1.1.4322)
4. type: aspnet_regiis -i
   (this will re-register the Framework 1.1 and reinstall your ASPNET user so that it works properly)

After you've done this, reboot and then double check that your IIS is still set up to use the .NET Framework 1.1.

Please note that you can still have .NET Framework versions that are newer than version 1.1 still installed on the computer, the important thing is that your IIS (and ASPNET user) is configured to use this version instead of any other version while implementing projects with Visual Studio 2003.

Hopefully this helped you.
Good luck with your future projects,

Cheers!

-Frinny