Error: This product requires ASP.Net web service extensions to be enabled in IIS

Recently, I was installing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2003 running on my Virtual PC. I installed .NET Framework 2.0, Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2 and then added the ASP.NET 2.0 service extension in IIS 6.0. When I ran the setup.exe I received the following error “This product requires ASP.Net web service extensions to be enabled in Internet Information Services (IIS). Enable this setting and re-run setup.”

I verified that the ASP.NET 2.0 extension was enabled but still received the same error. The .NET Framework 2.0 didn’t give me the option to repair in Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel (similar to the one that’s available for Workflow Foundation shown below).

I knew that the ASP.NET was not properly registered because the General tab showed that the extension was not used by the ASP.NET v2.0.50727 as expected, instead it showed “unknown”, as shown in the following screen shot.

Rather than reinstalling the .NET Framework, I decided to register ASP.NET by using the following command at the command prompt. I made sure that I was in the folder where aspnet_regiis was located.

aspnet_regiis -i

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>aspnet_regiis -i

Start installing ASP.NET (2.0.50727).

……………………………..

Finished installing ASP.NET (2.0.50727).

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>

When I ran the SharePoint Server setup it failed again. I ran “aspnet_regiis -i” one more time, restarted the IIS Admin service and noticed that the ASP.NET was now being used by v2.0.50727. I ran the SharePoint Server setup again and it finally worked. If you’ve run into a similar situation, hopefully this will help solve your problem.