Users are unexpectedly prompted to enter their credentials when they access a list in a Office SharePoint Server 2007 site that is based on the Publishing Site template

Consider the following scenario. You use SharePoint Central Administration to create a new Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site that is based on the Publishing Site template. You configure the site to use anonymous access.

When a user tries to access a list on the site, the user is unexpectedly prompted to enter his or her credentials. However, you expect a user to be able to access a list on the site without a prompt to enter his or her credentials.

This behavior occurs if the lockdown feature is enabled for the Limited Access permission level. The lockdown feature prevents anonymous users from viewing form pages and using remote APIs.

To resolve this issue, use the Stadm.exe command-line tool to disable the lockdown feature. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Type the following lines at the command prompt. Press ENTER after each line.
   cd /d %commonprogramfiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin
   stsadm -o deactivatefeature -url http://ServerName -filename ViewFormPagesLockDown\feature.xml
3. Type exit to exit the command prompt.

Note After you run this command-line tool against your site, you must toggle the Site Settings advanced permissions to turn off Anonymous access. Then, turn on Anonymous access again. You must do this for the command to take effect on content that exists in the site.