I can't get an error message (description, line), why?

Created 2001-04-11

Question:

Whenever there is an error on my page, I get the http 500 internal server error "The page could not be displayed" (IIS 5.0).  On another server with IIS 4, I get an error description and line number. What could be wrong?

Answer:

This is a well-known bug in IIS (5.0). Solution:

1) Add virtual directory to your site called IISHelp and this points to c:\winnt\Help\iisHelp
2) Right click on site root and click properties
3) Custom error tab - scroll down to HTTP error 500;100
4) Edit properties on this
5) Change Message Type to URL
6) Change URL to /iisHelp/common/500-100.asp
7) Click OK, OK
8) Done - you now get a detailed error.

If you right-click on the computer name at the root and click Edit, you can do this globally for all sites.