Recently I had to check out an asp.net application on my workstation and found out that the "Default Web Site" is stopped for some reason. After trying to start it I've got this message:
So I've tried to start the mentioned services only to get a new error message (WWW PS):
The mentioned dependency is the other stopped service: WAS or better Windows Process Activation Service (the original message has left out the Process word). After trying to start WAS I've got another error message:
And here the error path comes to an end. Which file? I could have used Sysinternals' FileMonitor to find out what file the service is looking for. Rather I've decided to Google first as it is faster. After experimenting with search string a bit I've found this blog entry which points to this solution. After creating the mentioned folder and applying proper security settings IIS started to work once again.