MachineKeys on IIS 7.x : Inside Out
Question: What are Machinekeys? On what particular keys IIS 7.x is dependent upon?
Ans: IIS uses MachineKeys for encrypting data like passwords, App Pool identities which are stored in configs(applicationhost.config and web.config)
By default, IIS 7 includes two main providers for securing properties located in applicationhost.config
<configProtectedData>
<providers>