ampersand escape character doesn't work on impersonation password

[zomfgz]

I hope someone has a good answer for this stupid question.

I'm trying to connect to my sql server 2008 database and I'm using impersonation within my asp.net 3.5 application

<identity impersonate="tr ue" userName="testU serName" password="test& test" />

Naturally the compiler won't compile until I use the escape character:

<identity impersonate="tr ue" userName="testU serName" password="test& amp;test" />

So it compiles, unfortunately when I run my app, it get this:

Parser Error Message: Could not create Windows user token from the credentials specified in the config file. Error from the operating system 'Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.
Source Error:
<identity impersonate="tr ue" userName="testU serName" password="test&amp;test" />

Why isn't it converting my escape character into a proper &?

[Frinavale]

It isn't converting my escape character into a proper "&" because this is in your web.config file. There is no interpretation in this file.

Why won't the compiler accept "test&test" ?
What error message are you seeing?