WCF on .Net 4.x ReST Service with IIS 7 or 8 = HTTP Error 404.17

So my newly created WCF ReST service (or webHttp service, as MS more accurately like to call it) runs fine in Visual Studio 2012, using IIS Express. But when I switch to IIS proper (in my case, IIS8 on Windows 8) I get:

HTTP Error 404.17 - Not Found
The requested content appears to be script and will not be served by the static file handler.

Most so-far extant posts on how to fix this, refer to how to fix it for .Net 3 on Windows before Win8: Use "%WINDIR%\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v3.5\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe" to register or to repair registration of WCF components. (The other gotcha being, having the right AppPool settings for .Net version & for 32 vs. 64 bit).
This doesn't work for Windows 8 / .Net 4.X. Instead you must open the control panel "Turn Windows Features On or Off" and tick the box for Http activation:

Windows Features - Windows 8 - Net45 - WCF - Http Activation Tickbox
Windows Features - Windows 8 - Net45 - WCF - Http Activation

Which should fix the issue after a couple of minutes.

5 thoughts on “WCF on .Net 4.x ReST Service with IIS 7 or 8 = HTTP Error 404.17”

  1. Thanks sir i was trying to fix this error my making changes in settings of application pool
    but i was not able to overcome it. but doing a little changes as suggested by you it started
    working………………….

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WCF on .Net 4.x ReST Service with IIS 7 …

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