How to fix IIS Manager UI after Windows Update (August 2025 Cumulative Update)?

Question

How to fix IIS Manager UI after Windows Update (August 2025 Cumulative Update)?

Eitetsu Yo 90

After Windows Update (August 2025 Cumulative Update), pools, applications, and sites disappeared from the IIS Manager UI.

Clicking the server shows no “Add Pool/Application/Site” menu → IIS management UI is broken/not loading correctly.

The IIS service itself (World Wide Web Publishing Service) is running. スクリーンショット 2025-09-02 103835

Wellington Americano de Oliveira 0 Reputation points

2025-09-05T12:13:18.23+00:00

I use the Windows 11 Pro on my contract laptop and need the IIS to run some application development.

The kb5064401 bugs is making IIS pool applications and site pool disappear and I cannot run any the apps that I am developing.

Answer accepted by question author

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Wellington Americano de Oliveira 0 Reputation points

2025-09-05T12:13:18.23+00:00

I use the Windows 11 Pro on my contract laptop and need the IIS to run some application development.

The kb5064401 bugs is making IIS pool applications and site pool disappear and I cannot run any the apps that I am developing.

Answer 1

Damien Pham (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,345 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello EitetsuYo-9219,I understand you’re seeing that application pools, sites, and applications are missing from IIS Manager after the recent Windows update, even though W3SVC is running. This issue can be caused by several factors:

Configuration version mismatch – In some cases the administration.config file under C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config remains on an older schema (e.g., 8.5) while IIS updates to 10.0. Updating or regenerating this file can restore the IIS console.
You can refer to this question, which has the same issue
Security software interference – Antivirus tools may block IIS components during updates. Temporarily disabling them, reinstalling IIS features, and rebooting often resolves it.
Corrupted or missing config files – If applicationHost.config or administration.config are corrupted, restoring from backup or reinstalling IIS may be required.
Group Policy or scripted removal – Some environments automatically disable IIS after updates. Confirm no policies or scripts are enforcing this.
System corruption – Running sfc /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth helps repair OS components that may impact IIS.
If the above steps don't work, you can consider reinstalling IIS.

If the problem persists, capturing Event Viewer logs and screenshots of the IIS Manager UI will help with further investigation.

I hope this helps you get things back on track quickly!

Eitetsu Yo 90 Reputation points

2025-09-02T08:45:40.32+00:00

Hello, Damien Pham

Thank you for your help.

I located subfolders (e.g., CFGHISTORY_000000001x) under the “C:\inetpub\history” directory containing an earlier version of the administration configuration file (administration.config). After copying this file to the "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config" directory, the IIS Manager was successfully restored.
Your advice was extremely helpful. Have a great day!
Adrian Parker 30 Reputation points

2025-09-03T15:15:33.5833333+00:00

My problem was slightly different.. the administration.config had %WINDOWS_PUBLIC_KEY_TOKEN% all over the place.. I looked on another machine and saw that instead of the TOKEN string, it had 31bf3856ad364e35 , so I replaced the token in the file on my machine and all is working again.
Aaron Mouledous 15 Reputation points

2025-09-04T15:55:46.63+00:00

I also experienced this issue, as well as several members of my team. One member remained unaffected, and his administration.config had the values 31bf3856ad364e35 instead of %WINDOWS_PUBLIC_KEY_TOKEN%. Following Adrian Parker's advice an replacing all values solved the issue for me after an iisreset, as well as manually starting Windows Process Activation Service and World Wide Web Publishing Service from Services, which were required to restart App Pools and the Default Web Site, which were stopped post config change.
Daniel Resendiz 15 Reputation points

2025-09-06T06:12:49.1466667+00:00

I found the solution on my own too; you have to replace all the values %WINDOWS_PUBLIC_KEY_TOKEN% with the correct token, which is 31bf3856ad364e35.

Someone messed up with this update.
John Gwinner 0 Reputation points

2025-09-08T04:28:06.4366667+00:00

Damien's 'answer' is extremely generic and doesn't really address the core issue of the update being broken.

Adrian nailed it. I'm currently working remote and alone and wouldn't have been able to diff my other machine (and I don't know if it would have been affected as well).

Thank you Adrian (and the at sign tag features is broken here)

I agree with Daniel. The administraction.config file on my machine showed an update today, and I can assure you I added nothing nor did I edit this.

Clearly, someone replaced a "hard coded" token with an environment variable, and someone else forgot to set that environment variable.

Look at it this way; WINDOWS_PUBLIC_KEY_TOKEN is also "hard coded".

Anyway, broken update.

MS, fix your stuff instead of having your wicloud lackeys spout "gee I've known this for twenty years" admin excuses.

Asking someone to reinstall IIS just because of a broken update is the reason MS's reputation is sliding.

Sorry to be blunt I was trying to do something simple and wasted time fixing someone else's problem.

== John ==
John Gwinner 0 Reputation points

2025-09-08T04:36:58.53+00:00

I used Damien's suggesting and found that ALL of the history files were missing the WINDOWS_PUBLIC_KEY_TOKEN substitution and instead had the value 31bf3856ad364e35

Interesting. Not only that, the timestamp on the most recent history actually was 'today' about the time it was broken, and I can assure you I made no changes. All I was trying to do was check a few settings for my root directory; so just running IIS for the first time in a month or two broke it.

Something scrambled the file.

MS, please fix your updates.

Answer 2

Martin Lucifero 25

Open Text-Editor like Notepad++ with Admin rights.

Got to C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config

Make a backup of file administration.config

Open in Text-Editor file administration.config

Replace all occurrence (54 times) of :

%WINDOWS_PUBLIC_KEY_TOKEN%

with following string:

31bf3856ad364e35

Save the modified file.

You should see all entries in IIS Manager UI.

Restart PC and look if IIS Service is running and if you have all entries in IIS Manager UI.

In my opinion, this is a critical bug which needs to be corrected asap.

Prateek Nair 0 Reputation points

2025-09-08T17:41:48.72+00:00

thank you! that worked.. and this is indeed a critical bug! I only had to restart the IIS Admin service after the changes.
KHALID ALSEMARI 0 Reputation points

2025-09-09T01:22:07.75+00:00

Excellent job Thank you so much
Andrei T 0 Reputation points

2025-09-09T04:24:54.12+00:00

Thanks a lot!!! Works
Wellington Americano de Oliveira 0 Reputation points

2025-09-09T12:37:52.68+00:00

Thank you, worked fine!!!
Obrigado, funcionou!!!
方舟张 0 Reputation points

2025-09-10T14:45:16.4333333+00:00

yes your solution is perfect !!!! If it weren't for your solution I wouldn't be able to finish my homework

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How to fix IIS Manager UI after Windows Update (August 2025 Cumulative Update)?

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