title: Cannot read configuration file ' trying to read configuration data from file '\\?\<EMPTY>', line number '0'
body: <p>An app pool kept stopping every time it was started and gave this error in the application logs:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The worker process for application pool 'APP_POOL_NAME' encountered an
    error 'Cannot read configuration file ' trying to read configuration
    data from file '\\?\&lt;EMPTY&gt;', line number '0'. The data field contains
    the error code.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Several users have noted this occurs after the <em>Windows 10</em> Fall Update.</p>