ASP.Net and powerpoint

[C Williams]

We are having trouble automating Powerpoint 2003 from an asp.NET web
page. I know that MS officially discourages doing such a thing, but we
are trying nonetheless.

On only one of two servers, I get an Access Denied error when I attempt:

pptApp = new Powerpoint.Application

On the other server this works just fine. On this server (running xp
pro) Powerpoint opens in a process owned by the ASPNET user and is
happy. I had to give the aspnet administrator privileges--when I take
them away, it gives the error.

On the server that always gives the error (windows server 2003), it
doesn't seem to matter what privileges ASPNET has--the error occurs
regardless.

I have been banging my head on this for a while--I see other people have
run into this trouble for Word/Excel/Access and maybe have solved their
problems by the steps in the KB article HOWTO: Configure Office
Applications to Run Under a Specific User Account, but I tried to
duplicate those steps (though Powerpoint isn't mentioned in it) without
luck.

Why is one computer working and the other not? I imagine it's a matter
of configuration, but it's eluding me. I would appreciate very much any
help you might be able to offer.

Thanks,

-Casey

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

On Windows Server 2003 computers ASP.NET doesn't run under the ASPNET
account by default.
Instead, it runs under the NETWORK SERVICE account.
Try giving this account administrator privileges, or configure ASP.NET to
run under another account that has administrator privileges.

 

[C Williams]

The machine running Server 2003 does not have a NETWORK SERVICE account.
How do I find out under which account ASP.NET is running?

I am going to go attempt to find information about how to configure
ASP.NET to run from a given account, but if anyone has anything helpful
to say that might not be covered in available articles, I'd most
appreciate it.

 

[Scott Allen]

Go to Administrative Tools -> IIS Manager.
Expand the computer node in the tree view, then expand the application
pools node. Right click on the application pool for your app (probably
the default app pool), and select Properties, then go to the Identity
tab. This will display the account used to run the ASP.NET worker
process.