How to uninstall IIS from Windows Server 2008

dependencies uninstall windows-server-2008 iis iis-7

24,588

Answer: Restore the entire server from backup.

Lesson Learned: Before a web server deployment, copy the contents out of folder C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\ before ever changing IIS 7 configuration or making Web.Config changes.

Original issue: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17792419/configuration-file-is-not-well-formed-xml-2/17800935#17800935

Caused by changes from this work: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17779128/asp-net-generic-handler-not-getting-called-after-net-3-5-to-net-4-0-upgrade/17800921#17800921

24,588

MacGyver

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

MacGyver almost 2 years

I'm struggling with uninstalling IIS from Windows Server 2008. I went into Server Manager > Roles > Remove Roles > unchecked IIS > that prompted me to also remove dependencies. Every time the "Resume Configuration Wizard" continues after a restart, I keep getting another dialog to restart. After 3 tries, it says it failed to uninstall. Note, the 3 try failure screen shot was from previous attempts to uninstall WAS (Windows Process Activation Service). And a dependency for WAS is IIS. However, I get the 3 try failure with this set as well. What am I doing wrong?
- user16081-JoeT almost 11 years
  
  i think you don't necessarily need to uninstall IIS, you just need to go into services and disable the IIS service, Start > Administrative Tools > Services
- MacGyver almost 11 years
  
  I've tried that already. See my other question, from where this all started. stackoverflow.com/questions/17792419/…
- user16081-JoeT almost 11 years
  
  bummer; if this is a production system you might want to consider migrating to a fresh install.
- MacGyver almost 11 years
  
  Luckily it's not. It's just QA. But our server folks are working on getting a backup of this server for a restore. I'm bound and determined to fix it before they get the backup from tape, 1.5 days from now. :-) Without it, I can't test anything this week.
- MacGyver almost 11 years
  
  That's what I was thinking. Have you attempted this before also? I'm guessing it's not worth the hassle from your comment?
- Techie Joe almost 11 years
  
  @MacGyver I've attempted things like this for not just this (previous Windows server versions not this one) but other programs as well. Sure you could probably hack the registry and files involved and clean everything out but is the time spent doing this really worth it? Flattening and rebuilding it gives you a clean slate to work with and you won't have to worry about the potential odd registry hack or dll file you missed when you manually cleaned it under the hood.
- MacGyver almost 11 years
  
  true, true ... I'll leave it be
- MacGyver almost 11 years
  
  check this shit out.. I found the root cause by re-doing my steps on another server. When I replaced "3.5.0.0" with "4.0.0.0" in the Web.Config instead of replacing the actual lines, it caused the corrupt XML file. That section still works in IIS 6 which is interesting. Damn Microsoft!! See my answer to this question.. stackoverflow.com/questions/17779128/…
- MacGyver almost 11 years
  
  Here's the original problem this version change in the Web.Config caused.. stackoverflow.com/questions/17792419/…
MacGyver over 8 years

Windows Server 2012 R2 uninstalls IIS just fine, so it's only broken for Windows Server 2008 (from what I can tell)