Problem 

Trying to get BlogEngine 1.3 set-up in a proper windows login environment did not go as smooth I hoped. The errors I have seen range from Server Unavailable to IIS Metabase errors for my chosen user.

Find many posts referring to the ASNET user my first problem was to set that, although I now realise the default user would have been fine. The key to this is within the IIS directory security change the location to your local PC name, now you can just type ASPNET into the object name and click Check Names.

After following the install guide and permissions settings BlogEngine was not working and was stuck with Metabase errors but at least selecting my user wasn't a problem now. 

Solution

The following post "Failed to access IIS metabase." with ASP.NET 2.0 solved most of the issues (post 8)

I followed steps 1-5 :

1. Unregistered all the versions of ASP.NET with command "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis –ua".

2. Deleted the ASPNET account from "Local Users and Group – Users".

3. Then registered ASP.NET 2.0 with IIS using "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis –i".

4. Gave permissions to the ASPNET account using "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis –ga machinename\ASPNET".

5. Reset the IIS and that resolved the issue for ASP.NET 2.0.

Then go back to the BlogEngine install instructions and set the permissions for machinename\ASPNET on the BlogEngine directory and APP_DATA.