IIS7 on Windows XP

If someone is asking is it possible to install IIS7 on Windows XP machine, now the answer is YES.
With the release of WebMatrix it is now possible, because WebMatrix itself brings instalation of IIS Developer Express which is based on latest IIS7x codebase and can be installed on any supported Windows operating system:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista SP1+
• Windows XP SP3+
• Windows Server 2003 SP2+
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2008 R2

IIS Developer Express supports all of the latest IIS7 modules, including URL Rewrite, FastCGI, etc.  It support Classic ASP, PHP and of course ASP.NET development, including integrated pipeline.

How to install on Windows XP

1. Go to download page:  http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/download/
2. Click on DOWNLOAD IT NOW link
   
   
   
3. You will be prompted to download wpilauncher.exe file
4. After choosing where to download, and doing it, start downloaded file
5. It will start actually Web Platform Installer
   
   
   
6. Click Install WebMatrix (optionally include Visual Web Developer 2010 express or SQL Server Express 2008 R2 in installation). If don;t have installed previously .NET framework 3.5/4.0  or Visual Studio 2010, there will be about 45 MB to download and install at most.
   
   
   
7. After few restarts (depends on your previously installed features) You have screen for successfully installed product
   
   
   
8. Now you have installed WebMatrix. That automatically includes IIS7 Express edition.

After opening WebMatrix (in futrure version it will be plugged into VS.NET 2010)  the site is registered on IIS7 Express and is shown in system tray as a catalog of sites:

You will ask yourself: What is different from existing ASP.NET Development Server and IIS7 Express. Well, there are a lot of them: URL Rewriting Rules, SSL, Media Support, It can be installed separately from ASP.NET Development Server and the one I have a note for this article: It works on Windows XP where you can use all IIS 7x features on this Operating System.

There is no administration console for managing features, rules and other settings, but you can do it trough your web.config file of your web site.

Don’t forget that this is only BETA version of WebMatrix and IIS7 Express. I hope next version will include more features from real IIS 7x services. But even in this phase it is good enough to use it and to develop application.

For more features and plans about IIS7 please visit and read ScotGu’s article Introducing IIS Express.

Regards

Latek