At one point, I had the QuickStart tutorials installed correctly on my
Windows 2000 Server machine, and I could access them by going to, for
example:
http://bennett2win2k/quickstart/aspplus/samples/portal/VB/default.aspx

But then I had to re-install Windows 2000 Server on that machine. 
After I did, I reinstalled all components of Visual Basic .Net from
the CDs, including the .NET Framework SDK, whose description in the
install wizard says "The SDK also includes tools, QuickStarts,
tutorials, and samples."  But after I installed it, the URL above
still would not work.  How do I get the URLs for the QuickStart
tutorials working again?

I realized that the
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET\FrameworkSDK\Samples\QuickStart
directory had not been automatically Web-shared, so I made it a Web
share with the name "quickstart".  After I did that, I could view URLs
such as this with no errors:
http://bennett2win2k/quickstart/aspplus/doc/portalapp.aspx
but when I try to view the sample application at:
http://bennett2win2k/quickstart/aspplus/samples/portal/VB/default.aspx

I get the error:
>>>>>
Parser Error Message: It is an error to use a section registered as
allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This
error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an
application in IIS.

Source Error: 
Line 12:         <allow users="*" /> <!-- Allow all (other) users -->
Line 13:       </authorization>
Line 14:       <authentication mode="Forms" />
Line 15: 
Line 16:     <httpModules>
>>>>>

If I go to Internet Services Manager and right-click the listing for
"quickstart" under "Default Web site", it says "Application name:
quickstart", among other settings.  So I don't know if the error has
something to do with the "virtual directory not being configured as an
application in IIS".

I seem to remember that the last time I set up the QuickStart
tutorials on the Windows 2000 Server machine, I didn't have to mess
around with configuring any virtual directories.  That leaves me to
think that the QuickStart tutorials, and the virtual directories they
reside in, were originally configured by some installation program. 
What is it that you have to install to get the QuickStart tutorials
set up and working?

I also tried downloading and installing the full .Net Framework 1.1
and .Net Framework SDK 1.1 from www.asp.net, but that didn't work
either, i.e. the C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\QuickStart
directory that got created, was not automatically Web-shared, and when
I did Web-share it, I got the same error as above.

-Bennett

---

Request for Question Clarification by mmastrac-ga on 03 Jun 2003 07:10 PDT

Have you tried adding an IIS application at the level of the
quickstart/aspplus/samples/portal/VB application directory?  I belive
that you will find the web.config file sitting in that particular
directory.  You'll need to have an application rooted at each place
that a web.config file appears in your directory tree so that ASP.NET
know to create a separate application domain and load the appropriate
global.asax implementation.

I can give you more information later today when I have access to a
.NET-configured machine.

---

Clarification of Question by bennetthaselton-ga on 04 Jun 2003 01:19 PDT

There was no web.config file in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual
Studio .NET\FrameworkSDK\Samples\QuickStart\aspplus\samples\portal\VB\
directory, but there was a web.config file in the "portal" directory
one level higher.  So, I went in to Internet Services Manager, browsed
to "Default Web Site\quickstart" to see the application I'd already
created, expanded the "quickstart" node and browsed to:
\quickstart\aspplus\samples\portal
and then right-clicked on that, picked Properties, and clicked
"Create" next to Application Name, to create an application named
"portal" at that root.  However, after doing this, I still get the
same error as before when going to:
http://bennett2win2k/quickstart/aspplus/samples/portal/VB/default.aspx

On the other hand, if I delete that "portal" application, and then
just right-click Default Web Site in Internet Services Manager, and
create a new Virtual Directory with the alias "portal" that maps to
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET\FrameworkSDK\Samples\QuickStart\aspplus\samples\portal", then by
right-clicking on that virtual directory I can see that it says
"Application Name: portal", but then if I go to
http://bennett2win2k/portal/VB/default.aspx
I get the error message:

>>>
Parser Error Message: File or assembly name Personalization, or one of
its dependencies, was not found.
Source Error: 
Line 15: 
Line 16:     <httpModules>
Line 17:       <add name="Portal Personalization"
type="Personalization.UserStateModule,Personalization" />
Line 18:     </httpModules>
Line 19: 
>>>

I am pretty positive that the first time the QuickStart tutorials were
installed, the URL
http://bennett2win2k/quickstart/aspplus/samples/portal/VB/default.aspx
worked without me having to do any additional configuration of virtual
directories and things like that.  If I just re-install the tutorials,
I'll bet they'll just work, but how do you re-install them so that
they automatically become available on the Web server where they're
installed?

-Bennett

Okay - the reason you're getting the error that the personalization
dll is missing is that the samples have not yet been compiled.  I've
listed the proper procedure for compiling and setting up these samples
below:

To reinstall the virtual directories correctly, you need to run the
ConfigSamples.exe program from the quickstart directory.  You can get
it by browsing to this page (which is also available in your Start
Menu under "Microsoft .NET Framework SDK" as "Samples and QuickStart
Tutorials":

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual
Studio.NET\FrameworkSDK\Samples\StartSamples.htm

Browse down to the part of the page that says:

Step 2: Set up the QuickStarts
Because the QuickStarts demonstrate a wide variety of the .NET
Framework technologies, some machine configuration is required. The
link above configures your machine to run the QuickStarts. This
includes importing four sample databases into the MSDE database
server, creating several Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual
directories, and compiling several samples.  In order to complete
these operations, you must be logged in using an account with
Administrator privileges.  For a complete list of tasks accomplished
in this step, including manual instructions for configuring the
QuickStarts, see the Configuration Details document.

And click on the link it gives.  Run the program that starts (as a
user with Admin privileges) and you should have a correctly-configured
quickstart system, as you had before.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by bennetthaselton-ga on 05 Jun 2003 02:44 PDT

OK, I finally got it working, although I had to complete one
additional step in addition to the one you listed above. 
Specifically, on the StartSamples.htm page, there is a Step 1 before
the Step 2.  Step 1, installing the MSDE database, has to be completed
before you can go on to Step 2.  Otherwise, samples such as the
Personalized Portal won't work.

However, even that part wasn't easy.  The first time, I clicked on the
link in Step 1 to install the MSDE database, and then clicked the link
in Step 2 to set up the QuickStart samples using ConfigSamples.exe,
but the Portal application was giving an error that it "couldn't find
the SQL Server".  So I went back to StartSamples.htm to see exactly
what I had done in Step 1, but -- and this is what I love about
Microsoft -- the StartSamples.htm page had been OVERWRITTEN with a new
one, and the old instructions were gone.

Fortunately, I found another copy of StartSamples.htm with the
original instructions, in the directory for .Net Framework SDK 1.1,
which I had downloaded and installed separately from ASP.Net.  That
StartSamples.htm page had a link to install MSDE, but it wasn't a link
to a local setup.exe, it was a link to a file to download from
Microsoft.com and instructions on what to do with it.  The
instructions said to download the setup.exe and run it with the
command:

Setup.exe /qb+ INSTANCENAME=NetSDK DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1
SAPWD=<YOUR SA PASSWORD>

So I actually ran the local C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET\Setup\MSDE\Setup.exe, the one that I already had, using those
arguments instead.  And it worked -- and then the Personalized Portal
application worked as well.

I don't know why the original link in StartSamples.htm didn't work.  I
assume that clicking the link would have run the MSDE setup program
with the above arguments.  But since running ConfigSamples.htm
overwrote the StartSamples.htm page, I guess now we'll never know. 
But at least I got it working.

---

Clarification of Answer by mmastrac-ga on 05 Jun 2003 06:37 PDT

Posting this to clear the "clarification needed" flag.

Exactly what I needed.  I had to do some extra steps, but that's
Microsoft's fault, not his :)  (The extra steps are listed in my
"Request for Clarification" that I posted in response to his answer. 
It's not really a request for clarification, just a comment, but for
some reason Google Answers wouldn't let me post a comment on the
question -- maybe it doesn't let you post comments on questions that
were already answered.)