Question

Why does the following problem happen?

Scenario:

• Make sure that IIS is installed
• Execute "notepad
%WINDIR%\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config" using admin
  account

Actual Result: the file is successfully opened in notepad

• Execute the following code in admin account’s context:

  string filePath = @"%WINDIR%\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config";
  Console.WriteLine(File.Exists(Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(filePath)));
  

Actual Result: False

Expected Result: True

Answer 1

The problem is if you are running a 32-bit application on a 64-bit OS, the .Net framework automatically redirects the request from %WINDIR%\System32 to %WINDIR%\SysWOW64.

If you change your project to target 64-bit, this will solve your problem.

You can also resolve the problem by changing System32 to sysnative, but only if you leave the application as a 32-bit app:

string filePath = @"%WINDIR%\sysnative\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config";