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A forced Windows 10 update installed successfully. The update history shows "2017-07 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1703 for x64-based Systems (KB4025342)" among a total of 45 other updates installed on 7/29/2017.

After updating and attempting to launch my project in the debugger, which has always worked before:

I now get a blank page for every URL. I'm debugging in IIS Express on localhost. View Source yields an absolutely blank page also (this is definitely not the IIS file association problem that I've seen documented).

I did absolutely nothing else (to cause this) besides install Windows 10 (and I wouldn't have if MS didn't force me to). After this I did a clean/rebuild completely from scratch, I then removed the Bin folder, re-installed all the NuGet packages, still exactly the same result, F5 launches the web application in debug mode and launches the page as usual but it is completely blank. It does not execute any code, Page_Load is not called.

  • Visual Studio 2017 made no difference

  • I switched to IIS and got a 500.19 error with 0x80020021 error code which this page 500.19 error with IIS7.5 addresses, after unlocking the two subsections of system.web.server that were locked (why were they locked?)

it now returns 404.3 Not Found, with:

-- It is possible that a handler mapping is missing. By default, the static file handler processes all content. (well, not .aspx pages!)
-- The feature you are trying to use may not be installed. (somehow maybe this is true, but how?)
-- The appropriate MIME map is not enabled for the Web site or application.
(Warning: Do not create a MIME map for content that users should not download, such as .ASPX pages or .config files.) (right... there should not be a MIME map entry for .ASPX)
-- If ASP.NET is not installed. (how could this be?)

ASP.NET installation -- it is built in to Windows 10, I installed the .NET developer packs and tried 4.5.2, 4.6.1 and 4.7, No change.

In summary: nothing has helped. With IIS Express, or IIS, same problem. All .aspx urls return a completely blank page and no code in the code-behind .cs files gets executed. Fiddler says 503 (but 503 is not shown in the browser, either Edge or Chrome).

Latest unsuccessful effort: I went back to the previous build (rolled back the latest Windows update) by selecting "Go back to an earlier build" from "Update Settings/Windows Update/Update History" and I still have the problem. So, either I'm really stuck now, or I've opened up a lot of possibilities based on a wrong assumption that it was the update that caused the problem. Something is corrupt? Something changed in my project that I'm not aware of? Corrupt: I ran the system file scanner, sfc /scannow and it found no problems. Back to the drawing board...

George C.
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  • I installed Visual Studio 2017 to see if that somehow installed over something that was broken by the Windows update or otherwise repaired the problem. No such luck. – George C. Jul 31 '17 at 14:27
  • I have now tried turning ASP.NET 4.7 off in the Turn Windows Features On/Off control panel, restarted, back on, restarted, now we've gone around the block and back to the cul-de-sac... blank page! no more "errors" but have achieved the same result as IIS express, absolutely empty page (view source shows nothing). – George C. Jul 31 '17 at 19:03
  • Please pretend I didn't say .aspx (I know that is ugly old stuff), this has nothing to do with the flavor of asp, it must be a .net + Windows 10 related issue. Help? – George C. Jul 31 '17 at 19:09
  • that's strange. I have a few concerns: 1. Do you have a default start page in your project?, if so, when you press F5 in Visual Studio, VS runs the solution and the browser shows the url of your start page? 2. Check the event viewer after clean your AppPool and ejecute `iisrest` command. – Mauricio Arias Olave Jul 31 '17 at 19:27
  • have you tried aspnet_regiis /i command from the developer command prompt? google for aspnet_regiis and you can review the documentation. that last bit about asp.net not being installed made me think of this. – geekzster Jul 31 '17 at 19:29
  • @MauricioAriasOlave it doesn't matter, with or without a start page, with one, yes it goes to the start page, without one, it goes to the current page if the current page is an .aspx page in VS, either way the **result is a blank page**, and the code in my code-behind .cs file is not executed -- also keep in mind, that this **worked** just before installing the Windows 10 update, and it stopped working **without me changing _anything_** else before or after the install. It has been working for a long time. – George C. Jul 31 '17 at 21:42
  • @geekzster Yes I have done this. On Windows 10 when you run aspnet_regiis -i it tells you the following: Start installing ASP.NET (4.0.30319.0). This option is not supported on this version of the operating system. Administrators should instead install/uninstall ASP.NET 4.5 with IIS8 using the "Turn Windows Features On/Off" dialog, the Server Manager management tool, or the dism.exe command line tool. For more details please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=216771. – George C. Jul 31 '17 at 21:47
  • @geezster ... and ASP.NET 4.7 is turned on in the "Turn Windows Features On/Off dialog. – George C. Jul 31 '17 at 21:49

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Success!... OK, so the problem wasn't just Windows 10 Update directly breaking something which I wondered how that was possible, but it sure seemed like it.

I have now rebuilt my solution from scratch, creating a new web site project in VS and pouring the minimum number of files in first, basically Login and some utilities, enough to build and test and see that it worked. Then in about 3 doses I added everything else and it kept on working. I also reloaded all the Nuget packages, and switched from .NET 4.5.2 to .NET 4.6.1. (so I broke the rule of only 1 change). I did a full compare with Beyond Compare and the only differences are some obsolete page files that I just left out of the new one, and the binaries and the different build target (.NET 4.6.1).

Could the Windows update have broken/corrupted a binary? It force rebooted my system which I can't stand. Who knows... maybe, it was quite a coincidence. Oh well.

George C.
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