I am running XP with IIS 5.0. When I try to run an ASP page, the program freezes whenever I am trying to update a file that is in wwwroot or a subordinate folder.

It seems that the "Read Only" attribute is always checked. When I try to uncheck it (in Explorer's Properties) it always goes back to checked (a green box appears in the "Read Only" attribute checkbox).

As a consequence, no updating is allowed.

Any suggestions?
Thanks so much.

Hi Ed,

It sounds like you're trying to modify or replace active HTML or ASP files with an ASP program. One example that occurs to me would be a guestbook-type program. I can think of two reasons why this may not be working for you:

1. Are the file permissions set properly for the target files (the ones you're trying to update)? You must specifically allow the "Internet Guest Account" to have "Modify" rights on the files. Select the file(s) to be modified by the ASP program, right-click and select Properties, and choose the Security tab. If "Internet Guest Account" does not appear in the list above, click Add, and then type:

   machine\IUSR_machine

   where "machine" is the network name of your computer. For example, if your computer is named "bart," then you'd type BART\IUSR_BART here. Select "Internet Guest Account," turn on the "Full Control" option, and then click OK. That should give your ASP program the permissions it needs to update the files.

2. The file(s) you're trying to update may be in use by IIS. To test this, try modifying the files yourself (with Notepad or whatever) while IIS is running; if IIS won't let you do it manually, it certainly won't let an ASP program do it. To work around this, you may have to separate the content you want updated from the rest of the file. For example, if your ASP program is modifying another ASP file, you'll need to create a third file for the content. The ASP program doing the updating would write to this third file, and the ASP program that you were trying to update would simply read from this content file. That way, you can update content in a page without modifying an in-use document.

Please let me know if either of these are helpful!

David Karp, coauthor of Windows XP in a Nutshell

I was having the same problem with freezing pages that Ed's having. People tell me it is normal in XP. I have solved my problem by turning off script blocking in Norton Antivirus. At first, it did not seem to be the solution, but after rebooting, my ASP page works perfectly.

Spread the word.

Jan Van Steenbergen

This is just a quick thank you to Jan Van Steenbergen. This comment saved my laptop being thrown out of the 5th floor window. I have been searching for a solution to my problem (I couldn't create a file under XP running NAV) for weeks--it was driving me mad--but it's so simple when you think about it.

Jan Van--thank you, thank you, thank you.

Daniel Corley

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