Missing the App Pools Folder in Windows 2003?

Well, that happened to me today, and even though I've been working with Win 2k3 for quite some time now, not seeing the application pools where they were supposed to be quite baffled me :)

Of course the simple answer is that IIS was running in IIS 5.0 Isolation Mode (also called IIS 5.0 compatibility mode). Not sure why though, but I guess there may have been some issues with old COM components or something and therefore the default IIS settings were changed.

If you want to change back to "Worker Process Isolation Mode"? Just (quoted from TechNet):

1.  In IIS Manager, expand the local computer, right-click Web Sites, and then click Properties.
2.  Click the Service tab, clear the Run WWW service in IIS 5.0 isolation mode check box, and then click OK.
3.  To start the WWW service, click Yes when asked if you want to restart IIS now.

If the switch to worker process isolation mode is successful, a folder named Application Pools appears in the IIS Manager listing for your local computer. You can quickly determine which isolation mode IIS is running because the Application Pools folder is present in worker process isolation mode and absent in IIS 5.0 isolation mode.