IIS Aid

Whenever you use a web browser to open a web page on the Internet, that web page is served by, surprisingly enough, a web server. There are actually many different web server platforms available, and while Apache is undoubtedly the king of the open source offerings, Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) is by far the most popular commercial package. In this guide we'll outline the steps you need to take to install IIS in your Windows environment using the standard GUI.

IIS 5 & 6 Installation

The process of installing IIS 5.x and IIS 6 is very much the same, despite being quite different under the hood. To install IIS 5 or 6, follow these steps;

• To install IIS on Windows XP Professional, or any of the Windows 2000 or 2003 series
• Open Control Panel
• Open add/remove programs
• Select add/remove Windows components
• Check the Internet Information Services (IIS) checkbox
• Click on the Next button and ensure you have your installation media avaiable

IIS 7 Installation

With the arrival of Windows Vista and Server 2008 comes IIS 7, which is very much different from it predecessors, both in operation and to an extent in the installation process. Unlike IIS 5.x & 6 where everything is installed by default (although also disabled by default in IIS 6), IIS 7 uses a modular design where only the components you need are installed. For instance, support for CGI or ISAPI Extensions are only installed if you specifically do so.

To install IIS 7 on Vista or Server 2008 follow these steps;

• To install IIS on Windows Vista or Windows 2008
• Open Control Panel
• Open Programs and Features
• Click on turn Windows features on or off
• Expand the Roles pane and click on Add Role
• When the installation wizard starts, click on next and then select the Web Server IIS checkbox
• Continue through the wizard and select which features you wish to add when prompted

Hopefully this guide has given you somewhere to start with your IIS installation. If you have any feedback or suggestions please post your comments here. If you have any support questions, please post in the forums.