I’m coming up to speed on IIS7 on Windows Server 2008 R2.  There is a lot to like, but there is also a lot to learn.  One of the things that’s interesting about R2 is that there is no 32-bit version, so I’m finally running 64-bit Windows.  This doesn’t come without its problems.

One of the problems I’m running down required that I view and possibly edit applicationHost.config.  This file is located at %SystemRoot%\System32\inetsrv\config.  Seems simple enough.  I was able to find it from the command line easily, but when I went to load it in my favorite editor (Notepad++) I got a file not found error.  Turns out that the System32 folder is redirected for 32-bit applications to SysWOW64.  There appears to be no way to view the System32 folder using a 32-bit app.  Go figure.

Fortunately, 64-bit versions of Windows ship with a 64-bit version of Notepad.  As much as I dislike it, at least it works.

Rick Strahl wrote a terrific article covering this issue, which I’ve listed in the Resources section.

Resources