I downloaded and re-installed Zen Cart into the same directory without any modifications to IIS7. I think that I got too comfortable with basic installation and misssed some key areas with respect to the configuration files.

My recommendation is to strictly follow the directions to the letter to avoid hours of misery. This has been a lesson learned. Corrupted config files seem to cascade, because it caused soem issues with what is called the web configuration file that is included with virtual directories in Windows. Thanks for responding and I hope my experinces help others.