Config Error: This configuration section cannot be used at this path

Question

I\'ve encountered an error deploying a site to a server. When trying to load the home page, or access authentication on the new site in IIS, I get the error:

Answer 1

In our case on IIS 8 we found the error was produced when attempting to view Authentication" for a site, when:

1. The server Feature Delegation marked as "Authentication - Windows" = "Read Only"
2. The site had a web.config that explicitly referenced windows authentication; e.g.,

Marking the site Feature Delegation "Authentication - Windows" = "Read/Write", the error went away. It appears that, with the feature marked "Read Only", the web.config is not allowed to reference it at all even to disable it, as this apparently constitutes a write.