Can't start site in IIS (use by another process)

Question

When I try to start a site in IIS it says:

the process can\'t access the file because it used by another process

I searched in Goog

Answer 1

My case was after installing RD Web Access, the original default websites couldn't be started. Removed the RD Web Access role still same. Removed port 443 binding solved the issue.

Answer 2

It is happening because a different process is using port 80, it may be a chat application on your PC like Skype.

First, change the default web site port which was 80 to some unused port (e.g. 8087). To achieve this right click the application and then click on 'Edit Binding'.

After this port change restart again. Now you can identify which process is blocking the IIS Port 80. To check this use netstat command which displays the details of port along with the process ID.

Answer 3

You can also run this command to find out which application or service is using the port and then trace it down in Task manager (Provided it's not the Web Deploy Agent Service).

netstat -o -n -a | findstr 0.0:80

Then open Task manager, go to Processes, click the "Show processes for all users" checkbox and then click the View menu and Go to the Columns, add the PID column.

Match the Process ID from the netstat command to the PID in task manager and you will find the service or application that's using the port.

Answer 4

In my case, it was the "Sync Share Service" (SyncShareSvc) that was running and using port 80. netstat showed 80 as free, though. I could get the site to run on another port, but not 80. if I added a Host name, IIS would allow me to start the site, but I'd get prompted for Digest authentication when browsing to localhost (or any host name I added). Only Anonymous and Forms Auth were enabled in IIS...

I also found that, after stopping IIS, http://localhost still prompted me for Digest authentication.

The solution - in my case - was to remove File and Storage Services > Files and iSCSI Services > "Work Folders" from the services installed (restart required).

After removing the "Work Folders" service and restarted, IIS worked as expected.