I've been trying to install IIS on a Vista box, and finding myself stumped by a blank dialog box when selecting "turn Windows features on or off" (or running "optionalfeatures.exe" from the command prompt). As it turns out, there are thousands of people posting the same problem.
I found this page which shows you how to run the Microsoft Repair program and then helpfully explains how to do a system restore when that doesn't work. What's more, one person who had my problem had talked to Microsoft support and had been walked through a system restore.
I suspected some problems with the registry, and couldn't believe that I had to do a system restore. Finally I found this: Apparently, the registry for windows optional features can get screwed up when you run windows updates, probably (based on the fact that all the problem items were older versions of replaced items) because the system fails to give itself permission to delete obsolete entries and so doesn't do so.
As Raymond explains in detail on his page, the solution is to use Microsoft's "System Update Readiness Tool" to identify problems with packages, and delete the problem packages from the registry. This repaired the problem for me, and judging from the number of thankful posts on the site of the (brilliant) guy who came up with this, it did the same for a number of other people.
HTH
Bob
I found this page which shows you how to run the Microsoft Repair program and then helpfully explains how to do a system restore when that doesn't work. What's more, one person who had my problem had talked to Microsoft support and had been walked through a system restore.
I suspected some problems with the registry, and couldn't believe that I had to do a system restore. Finally I found this: Apparently, the registry for windows optional features can get screwed up when you run windows updates, probably (based on the fact that all the problem items were older versions of replaced items) because the system fails to give itself permission to delete obsolete entries and so doesn't do so.
As Raymond explains in detail on his page, the solution is to use Microsoft's "System Update Readiness Tool" to identify problems with packages, and delete the problem packages from the registry. This repaired the problem for me, and judging from the number of thankful posts on the site of the (brilliant) guy who came up with this, it did the same for a number of other people.
HTH
Bob