thanks - that was the original problem and I now get one stage further, to the screen which says that Access to the path 'C:\Inetpub\vhosts\trashmouth.co.uk\httpdocs\web.config' is denied.

The solution to this is to give full control to the NETWORK SERVICE account to the root folder which I have done - but I still get the error.

The only differemce I can see is that the error says you should give permissions to NT AUTHORITY/NETWORK SERVICE. Mine is MACHINENAME/NETWORK SERVICE.

Anyone got any ideas?

thanks,

lukemack.

good to see you fixed it.  The part about the identity is missing from the install documentation (as of last visit I made) and the assumption is that it always is NETWORK SERVICE.  Perhaps the documentation can be updated to include reviewing the DefaultAppPool identity (or whatever app pool being used by the site - as some host separate these out).