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How to Enable Detailed IIS Errors

Daniel Hejmanowski
Updated

Goal

By default, Internet Information Services (IIS) only shows very basic error messages in the browser. Enable detailed errors to get a more meaningful description of the problem when troubleshooting a server error.

Warning: Enable detailed errors only for troubleshooting and turn them off again afterwards. Detailed error messages can contain internal information such as file paths, configuration details, or stack traces. These are shown to any user who triggers an error and can help attackers learn about your server environment.

Steps

  1. Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
    The Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
  2. Select your site on the left (1) and open Error Pages (2).
    The site in the left pane (1) and the Error Pages feature (2)
  3. On the right, click Edit Feature Settings.
    The Edit Feature Settings action in the right pane
  4. Select the Detailed Errors option (1) and confirm (2).
    The Detailed Errors option (1) and the confirmation (2)

When IIS now encounters an error, the error message contains much more detailed information than before.