Fix CO_E_NOIISINTRINSICS (0x8004E029) in IIS

App Pool Identity Not Set Correctly

The most common reason you see 0x8004E029 is the application pool identity. If you changed it from the default ApplicationPoolIdentity to a custom domain account or NetworkService, and that account doesn't have the right COM+ permissions, IIS can't serve intrinsics like Request.ServerVariables. I've seen this on dozens of IIS 8.5 and 10 servers after a security audit tightened service accounts.

Check your app pool in IIS Manager. Open Application Pools, select yours, and click Advanced Settings. Look at Process Model > Identity. If it's not ApplicationPoolIdentity, switch it back temporarily. If the error goes away, you need to grant the custom account the proper COM+ launch and activation permissions.

To fix a custom account:

1. Run dcomcnfg as admin.
2. Expand Component Services > Computers > My Computer > DCOM Config.
3. Find IIS Admin Service (or IIS WAMREG admin Service on older IIS).
4. Right-click > Properties > Security tab.
5. Under Launch and Activation Permissions, click Edit and add your app pool identity account. Grant Local Launch and Local Activation.
6. Restart the app pool and test.

Don't bother with restarting IIS yet. The culprit is almost always the identity—get it right first.

Missing IIS COM+ Dependencies

If the identity's fine, the next suspect is a missing IIS component. The intrinsics rely on COM+ objects that get registered when you install IIS. If someone removed IIS roles or ran a cleanup script, those registrations vanish. This is common after a Windows feature update or a botched uninstall of an older IIS version.

Check if the COM+ catalog has the IIS objects. Open Component Services (dcomcnfg) and go to Component Services > Computers > My Computer > COM+ Applications. Look for IIS In-Process Applications and IIS Out-Of-Process Applications. If either is missing, you've got a missing component.

Fix it by re-registering the IIS COM+ components. Run these commands as admin (order matters):

cd /d %windir%\system32\inetsrv
regsvr32 iisRtl.dll
regsvr32 iisW3wp.exe
regsvr32 iisWAMReg.dll
regsvr32 iisCOMAdmin.dll

If the error persists, reinstall the IIS-WebServerRole and all sub-features via PowerShell:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server -IncludeAllSubFeature -Restart

This sounds heavy-handed, but I've seen partial component states that no registry trick fixes. A clean role install is faster than hunting for missing DLLs.

Corrupted COM+ Catalog

OK, you checked the identity, you reinstalled IIS, and you're still getting 0x8004E029. Now we're dealing with a corrupted COM+ catalog. This happens when a COM+ application crashes during a transaction or after a forced reboot. I've run into this on servers that had the IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility feature installed and then removed.

The fix is to reset the COM+ catalog. This nukes all custom COM+ applications, so only do it if you're sure no other apps rely on COM+. Run this as admin:

regsvr32 /u comsvcs.dll
net stop comsysapp
cd /d %windir%\system32\
ren ComPlusApplications ComPlusApplications.old
regsvr32 comsvcs.dll
net start comsysapp

After that, re-register the IIS COM+ components from the previous section. You'll also need to re-create any custom COM+ apps you lost—hence the warning.

If you're on IIS 10 (Windows Server 2016 or later), you can also try the COM+ admin tool:

%windir%\system32\com\comadmin.msc

Under COM+ Applications, right-click and select Refresh. Sometimes the catalog just needs a kick. But if you're reading this, you've already tried the easy stuff.

Quick-Reference Summary

Start with the app pool identity. Nine times out of ten that's it. If not, move down the list. This error isn't rare—I've fixed it on maybe 30 servers over the years. Don't waste time guessing.