ColdFusion 8 on Windows Server 2003 x64

ColdFusion 8 is a 32 bit application and by default won’t run on IIS6 on Windows Server 2003 x64. You’ll get a “%1 is not a valid Win32 application” if you try.

To get IIS6 to run 32 bit applications (including classic ASP) you need open a dos prompt and type:

cd %systemdrive%\Inetpub\AdminScripts
cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32BitAppOnWin64 True
IISreset.exe /restart

Try to view a static html page, if you get a “Service Unavailable” error (like I did), then the quickest way to solve it is to remove IIS (from the control panel), reboot and reinstall IIS. WARNING: you will need the windows install files to do this!

Now, you can go ahead and install ColdFusion 8.