1) Just reinstalled (did not upgrade) Windows. Was Vista x64 Ultimate. Now it's Windows 7 x64 Enterprise.
2) Before the reinstall, exported the IIS 7 configuration which created 3 files applicationHost.config, configEncKey.key, and administration.config. Wasn't really planning to use them...
3) Installed Visual Studio 2008 , VS 2008 SP1, and IIS7. Individually they worked, but Visual Studio could not see IIS for some reason. It kept telling me "Could not find the server 'http://localhost' on the local machine " when localhost clearly was there, and web sites were even working.
4) At this point I used the IIS Shared Configuration thing, and pointed it at the 3 files, applicationHost.config, configEncKey.key, and administration.config. I thought I was importing the settings from my previous installation. I don't know what that did, but everything (except the server name) in IIS Manager disappeared, and the Features View action icons were gone except for 2 tow under management, Feature Delegation and Shared Configuration. I tried to find a way to undo what I had done, but could not.
5) Now I uninstalled everything IIS related from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area.
6) Reboot.
7) Reinstall IIS7 from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area.
8) Reboot.
9) Open IIS Manager, and everything is still missing.
10) Uninstalled everything IIS related from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area.
11) Reboot.
12) Reinstall IIS7 from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area.
13) Reboot.
14) Open IIS Manager, and everything is still missing.
15) Start Visual Studio 2008 anyway, and it works - it can see IIS. But I still need IIS Manager working.
16) Uninstalled everything IIS related from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area.
17) Reboot.
18) Reinstall IIS7 from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area. This now generates an error message that says the installation failed, and I have to reboot.
19) Reboot.
20) Reinstall IIS7 from the "Turn Windows features on or off" area. This still generates an error message that says the installation failed, and I have to reboot.
21) Tried this about 5 times, selecting slightly different components. All fail.
22) Reboot. Reboot. Reboot. Reboot. Reboot.
23) Look up how to run IIS 7 install from the command line, and try various examples, getting more and more simple, until finally I am down to just "start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;". This returns the error "Operation failed with 0x80070643 Fatal error during installation."
So... how can I fix this problem?