I have a Web Site Project, which actually runs in 32-bit enabled app pool, .net 2.0, IIS 7.5, Windows 7.
Here is the scenario that failing (but most important how it is failing). I pre-compile this site for x64 using aspnet_compiler.exe. I created new, 64bit-only app pool and I set a virtual directory where code is pre-compiled. I do this a lot, so everything as usual, only usually I test 32-bit version of code.
Once I try to access my website through url (http://localhost/mysite/login.aspx), my files in my virtual directory start to disappear. I open windows explorer and I can literally watch how files are being deleted. And then, they are gone and I get 404 response.
Has anyone seen anything like it?
Hopefully, someone will benefit from my experience.
What was happening, I took the code base which didn't contain web.config file. And the w3wp.exe [according to procmon] was deleting the entire virtual directory when web.config wasn't there. Here is how I found out - I enabled 32-bit execution and I immediately received web.config errors on the page. I went to fix it and the file wasn't there. I posted the file and now it was giving me "incorrect format" exception, which was normal since my code base was in fact 64-bit. So, I disabled 32-bit execution on the app pool and everything worked.
The bizarre behavior was that with no web.config w3wp.exe was removing entire virtual directory.