Trying to use 'exec' to run a helper executable on Win2K3 (and I'm told this also happens on Win2K) from a PHP script running on IIS, failed to invoke the executable.
Running the same PHP script on Win2K using Apache to serve the page calling the same helper executable worked.
Solution: On Win2K3 (and probably Win2K), give the IIS IUSR_xxxxx guest user Read & Execute permissions to Cmd.exe found in the System32 folder under Windows root directory.
This one had me confused longer than it should have! Hope this saves others from the same fate!
