Access denied, source SideBySide, SHELL32 error on an Windows 2003, IIS 6.0 server

Question

I'm getting this error on an Windows 2003/IIS 6.0 web server while the server is running. This is a new server.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 59
Date:  8/14/2009
Time:  2:44:25 PM
User:  N/A
Computer: **CENSORED**
Description:
Generate Activation Context failed for C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll. Reference error message: Access is denied.

Has anyone see this before?

It's also running .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Answer 1

Doing some searches it seems that a lot of times this is because something failed to install properly or permissions get messed up. Check the permissions on your c:\windows\system32 folder (and c:\windows\syswow64 if this is a 64-bit machine).