Explorer View breaks after IE8 install on Windows 2003

Posted on 31/07/2009 by Alex Angas

Since installing Internet Explorer 8 on my Windows Server 2003 development machine I’ve been unable to use Explorer View, with the error:

Please wait while Explorer View is loaded. If Explorer View does not appear, your browser may not support it.

Searching around, the main reasons seem to be:

  1. SharePoint site behind SSL – no fix at time of writing
  2. IE security level changes – fixable by adjusting security levels or adding SharePoint site to Trusted Sites zone
  3. WebClient service not running – fixable by starting this Windows service and ensure it is set to start automatically

For me the problem was #3, however attempts to start WebClient resulted in “File not found”-type errors. The following error was logged in the Event Viewer:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{BA126AD1-2166-11D1-B1D0-00805FC1270E}
to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20).  This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

This familiar problem usually occursin SharePoint installations with the IIS WAMREG admin Service in Component Services. However this time searching the registry for the GUID in the error I had came up with the “Network Connection Manager Class”. Then searching for the GUID in its AppID key of {27AF75ED-20D9-11D1-B1CE-00805FC1270E} resulted in the netman component.

I then configured the security as described by the error in Component Services:

netman Launch Permission

After stopping and restarting MS DTC I was able to start WebClient successfully and Explorer View worked again.

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  • Colin Dekker

    This behavior has changed in Windows Server 2008 R2, By default you cannot change DCOM object security settings anymore. To be able to change the Component's security settings (for IIS WAMREG for instance) you need to go into regedit first, then find the id of the COM object under AppId, then open the key's Permission (right click on key), click advanced, take ownership, then give yourself (or local admin group) Full control. after reopning the Component Services snap-in you can edit the component's activation permissions.

  • Colin Dekker

    This behavior has changed in Windows Server 2008 R2, By default you cannot change DCOM object security settings anymore. To be able to change the Component's security settings (for IIS WAMREG for instance) you need to go into regedit first, then find the id of the COM object under AppId, then open the key's Permission (right click on key), click advanced, take ownership, then give yourself (or local admin group) Full control. after reopning the Component Services snap-in you can edit the component's activation permissions.