Why is IIS Management crashing when I select a user in "Configure Web Deploy Publishing Dialog"?

Question

I am running IIS 8 and Windows Server 2012. I have installed Web Deploy and when I try to select a user to give publishing permissions to, I immediately crash without any error dialogs. When I go into the Event Viewer, I am able to see the following error:

IISMANAGER_CRASH

IIS Manager terminated unexpectedly.

Exception:System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.OverflowException: Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow.
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.UI.ObjectPickerWrapper.ShowObjectPicker(IntPtr parentHandle, Boolean usersOnly)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.UI.SelectExistingUserForm.OnWindowsBrowseButtonClick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
   at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(IntPtr dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.ShowDialog(IWin32Window owner)
   at Microsoft.Web.Management.Host.UserInterface.ManagementUIService.ShowDialogInternal(Form form, IWin32Window parent)
   at Microsoft.Web.Management.Host.UserInterface.ManagementUIService.Microsoft.Web.Management.Client.Win32.IManagementUIService.ShowDialog(DialogForm form)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.UI.SetupPublishingDialog.SelectUserButton_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
   at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(IntPtr dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.ShowDialog(IWin32Window owner)
   at Microsoft.Web.Management.Host.UserInterface.ManagementUIService.ShowDialogInternal(Form form, IWin32Window parent)
   at Microsoft.Web.Management.Host.UserInterface.ManagementUIService.Microsoft.Web.Management.Client.Win32.IManagementUIService.ShowDialog(DialogForm form)
   at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.UI.PackagingModule.SetupPublishing(HierarchyInfo info)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(Object obj, Object[] parameters, Object[] arguments)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)
   at System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke(Object obj, Object[] parameters)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItemClickedEventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnItemClicked(ToolStripItemClickedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.HandleItemClick(ToolStripItem dismissingItem)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
   at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(IntPtr dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
   at Microsoft.Web.Management.Host.Shell.ShellApplication.Execute(Boolean localDevelopmentMode, Boolean resetPreferences, Boolean resetPreferencesNoLaunch)

Process:InetMgr

I thought Microsoft had a complete process in place eliminating such easy to find bugs. What gives?

Nolan

I'm experience same problem. Some help ? – Uneasy

There's no solution to this. I read somewhere that it has something to do with the length of the user name. I can't believe this because my usernames are short. – Nolan

Still seeing this issue. It just crashes for me when hitting select, don't even have to enter a name. – Byelaw

Answer 1

For me

• adding required User with the "IIS Manager Permissions" GUI for the site
• simply choose them from the drop down (instead of choosing the Ellipse to search for / select a user)

Avoided the issue entirely and all seems to have worked fine

Antigorite

Nice work around, but still, a crash for a simple operation like this is just not acceptable even for open source software. – Nolan

@Nolan agreed. If you found the answer useful - please upvote. – Antigorite

Answer 2

I encountered this exact issue when attempting to configure web deploy publishing; IIS Manager would crash instantly when clicking the Select... button when attempting to select a user to give publishing permissions.

To work around it, I manually entered the username into the text field, in the format COMPUTERNAME\Username.

Worms

I have the same problem. – Dabber

@KalinKrastev, LOL! I remember being shocked and angry when I discovered this bug 4 years ago. I am blown away that this bug still exists. – Nolan

Answer 3

This is a bug that hasn't been fixed and apparently is of low priority. The only fix for me that works is to use an account with administrator privileges and ignore the dialog. A standard user account may work, but you have to find out what permissions needs to be applied. Frankly, Microsoft's security scheme is too complex to setup, which is why many sysadmins just turn it off or give full privileges to get around authentication denied problems. Web Deploy is a big rats nest of inter-operating components all of which have to have their permissions carefully tweaked. If someone has the time, which I don't have much of, download process explorer and setup a filter to watch for access denial errors and apply the appropriate permissions to the process or user.

Microsoft software has always been bad, but it's been getting progressively worse. If it were a company run by two guys operating out of their basement, this and other bugs would be perfectly understandable. But this is a multi-billion dollar corporation and it can't get basic software that's critical for its own survival right.

Microsoft is fighting too many battles and it's losing all of them. It's losing in the mobile market, the web server market and it will eventually lose the enterprise and the desktop market, since applications are moving away from the desktop. If there's no way of simply deploying web applications, it can just forget about the cloud market.

If you're a Microsoft only developer, you should start seriously looking at a career change. Don't base your livelihood on a sinking ship.

Precaution

Can you provide reference to how you know MS know about it? Any other details? I'm new to deployment, any suggestions on alternative methods to deploy? – Carotenoid

See my revised answer. I found a topic on some MS forum, but the solution didn't pertain to our specific issue. – Nolan