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Sitefinity Project Manager: Permission Errors in IE8

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I upgraded to IE8 and discovered I could no longer create web sites in Sitefinity's web-based Project Manager.  Each time I attempted to create a new web site, I received the following error:

The account, you have authenticated with, has no permissions to create virtual directories. Please make sure that windows authentication is enabled.

Sitefinity Project Manager Permissions Error

Previously, (prior to IE8), this error could be fixed by right-clicking the IE icon and clicking "Run as Administrator" (see blog post).  However, since my upgrade to IE8 this fix no longer worked.  Instead I received a username/password dialog window:

Sitefinity Project Manager Dialog Window

I tried logging in using my local username, but continued to receive the permissions error.

Workaround: Permission Error in Sitefinity's Project Manager

I'm not sure what is causing this problem.  I suspect IE8 has new security features that prevent the browser from auto-applying Windows Authentication to the Administrator account.  I tried to do research but didn't find good answers.  I did, however, find a workaround.

The workaround is to login to the username/password dialog window (shown above) using your computer's local Administrator account.  However, by default in Vista this account is disabled.  I found a helpful blog post that described how to activate the Vista Administrator account.

Enable the Hidden Vista Administrator account:

  • Click the Start button
  • In the Start Search Dialog Box type: secpol.msc
  • Click the Local Policy
  • Click Security Options
  • Double-click Accounts: Administrator account status
  • Click Enabled
  • Click the OK button

Vista Local Security Policy

Set a password for the Hidden Vista Administrator account:

  • Click the Start button
  • Click Control Panel
  • Click User Accounts -> Add or remove user accounts
  • Click the Administrator account
  • Click Set the password or Change the password
  • Create a password for the Administrator account
  • Click the Set password or Change password button

The Administrator account can now be used to login to Sitefinity's Project Manager:

Sitefinity Project Manager Administrator Login Dialog

Sitefinity's Project Manager should now work fine.  If anyone has other fixes or suggestions, please post a comment.

Posted by: Gabe Sumner
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Comments  6

  • David 03 May

    Did you have the same problem under Windows 7? I just set up windows 7 on the laptop, and having problems creating projects. David

  • SteveH 04 May

    Thanks! This helped me out! I appreciate it. I have been using Vista Ultimate (x64) with IE8 and have been pulling out hair with this product.

  • vaskess 28 May

    For some reason it did not work the first time around (IE8 was open and asking for a password while performing the steps above), but after restarting IE8, everything went well. Gabe, you are a life saver! This should be in Sitefinity's docs AND in the KB as well :)

  • Chris Emerson 10 Jul

    I tried this and the error is still occurring - in Chrome and in IE8.

    After 3 hours I finally hacked my way through the 3.6SP2 install (http://www.sitefinitywatch.com/blog/09-05-04/Bullet_Proof_Guide_to_Installing_Sitefinity_3_x.aspx?1212 - see my comment from 7/10/09) and now I run into another roadblock - argh!

    Anyone out there have another workaround/solution for this?

  • AnHund 22 Oct

    I could make the website run on my 64 bit CPU and got the error:

    HTTP Error 404.17 - Not Found

    The requested content appears to be script and will not be served by thestatic file handler.


    To solve this I opened advanced settings for the Classic .NET AppPool in IIS manager
    and set "Enable 32-byt Applications" to True .

  • Andrew 10 Nov

    I had a number of problems getting Sitefinity, Comunity, Net3.5 working. Under Windwos 7 (64 bit Ultimate)

    1) In the setup for the Application Pool, I had to set the .Net Framework version to .Net Framework v2.0.50727 - it was set to No Managed Code

    2) I had to grant permissions to the folders (directory) for myself - though this may have been tied up with the above problem since I still ran into that.

    3) I had to enable the admiistrator account - under Windows 7 this was just a case of opening the Computer Management console - selecting Local Users and Groups - Users - Administrator - Properties and untick the Account is Disabled box.

    4) I had already enabled 32-bit applications on the advanced properties of the Classic App Pool (as above) so I don't know if that was a cause of any problems.
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