Re: Unable to access system environment variables under IIS 6

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Scott Frazer (sfrazer_at_gmail.com)
Date: 07/20/04 

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:59:19 -0400

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:23:25 -0700, "David Wang [Msft]"
<someone@online.microsoft.com> wrote:

>The behavior looks by-design to me -- nothing to fix or set.
>
>1. Changing system environment variable requires rebooting the server for it
>to be visible in IIS (and ASP.Net by extension since IIS launches ASP.Net
>pages, which in turn inherits its environment). This is because IIS is
>ultimately launched by services.exe and inherits its environment, and you
>cannot restart services.exe (so that it picks up the system environment
>change) without rebooting the server.

this was it. I'm amazed I hadn't rebooted the server yet.

>2. Make sure you are actually comparing the same environment -- I don't
>think you're even comparing the same users. The ASP.Net page reports
>"LocalService" while yours report "scott.frazer" -- so no wonder the values
>are different. Also, the type of user logon also affects the user
>environment and privileges -- your user is an interactive logon, and IIS's
>is not.
>
>I believe rebooting your server after changing the system environment should
>satisfy your current questions of environment variable visibility within
>IIS.
>
>You can observe the same behavior with #1 yourself by:
>1. launch CMD.EXE
>2. Change System environment variables
>3. from the CMD.EXE in #1, launch another CMD.EXE (either use "start" or cmd
>again) and check its environment variables. Notice that the system
>environment change is not made. Now, launch CMD.EXE from the Start Menu's
>"Run" or a link to CMD.EXE -- notice it sees the system environment change.

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