IIS 7.5 - 403 Forbidden

For me the answer was in handler mappings section of IIS 7.5

Adding the following to web.config enabled all the aspx pages to work correctly

<configuration>
...
  <system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
    <handlers accessPolicy="Read, Script" />
    ... 
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Another possible issue which leads to a 403 error:

The Global.asax file is missing.

Haha you think that is embarrasing! This is probably the 1000th webserver I've installed... 30mins of 403s!! I can't figure it out. There is a stub default.asp in there.. permissions all correct... everything!

I turned on "directory" browsing in desparation of flicking around.

default.asp.txt is sitting there..... DOH.

Need to turn OFF "known file types"... why is that setting like that anyway?

Ok, I am quite embarrassed but the over sight was that "Require SSL" was checked by default and that is the place I did not check. I guess it is because an SSL is bound to the Default Web Site. Removing that check made it work.

Hopefully this will help someone else.