How to install an IIS web server on Windows XP Professional

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Overview: This tutorial shows you how to easily install and set-up Microsoft's IIS 5.1 web server on the Windows XP Professional operating system for use as a local or personal web server (web development environment) to process document requests. It also shows you how to configure the document serving order (index.htm, index.html, default.htm, etc.) and how to complete your installation with a basic ASP test script.
Also if you are interested in setting up PHP to run on your IIS server, a link to PHP installation and a script test
is available at the end.

Which version of the XP operating system do I need to install IIS and why should I install IIS?

IIS is Microsoft's acronym for Internet Information Server. IIS is a suite of tools and services for creating, managing, and deploying a web server. The version that ships with XP Pro is meant to be used for personal development or for up to ten people using it as an Intranet, for file sharing, printers, etc. according to the Microsoft ULA for XP Pro. As a web developer you need a web server for your development environment. You can develop with a remotely hosted server, but it's much faster, and safer to create applications and code locally. Web-based scripting can be created in programming languages such as: ASP, .NET, PERL, PHP, Python, JSP, etc. With the appropriate document extension and page delimiters, the server will recognize and parse (run through) the programming code written within that particular document and perform the directed instructions from the code. For this type of processing, also called server-side processing, you need a web server. Since IIS 5.1 is not a full scale server, the limited functionality of its built-in IIS will prevent you from doing advanced functions that you can only do with a full scale server like Windows Server 2003.

If I have the XP Home Edition, can I install IIS using it?

The answer is no. The XP Home Edition does not ship with the IIS components. You will need the XP Professional Edition to set up and utilize the IIS 5.1 server.

Let's get started installing IIS:

The Internet Information Server (IIS) is not installed by default with a standard Windows XP Pro installation. You will need your original Windows XP Pro CD when prompted to install IIS, and you must be able to log in under a user account that has administrator privileges. Go to Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs ->
Add/Remove Windows Components.

At the Windows Components panel, select the Internet Information Servicess (IIS) checkbox, and then hit Next.

Windows Components List

After you select the Next button, unless XP was installed from a network, you will be prompted for the original Windows XP Professional CD. Insert the CD and continue.

Configure Windows Components

Once installation has completed, point a browser to http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 With a successful install, you should see the page below... easy cheesy wasn't it? Rock'in! Way ta go playa! You can also access your server home page if you know your computer's IP address or computer name. From a Command Prompt you can type ipconfig or ping localhost to find out that info if you are curious. Before we conclude, we need to do a few more things. Next we need to know how to configure and control the default document serving order and create our own server home page. Scroll on down for this next step.

Windows Localhost

Let's configure the default document serving order and create our own server home page. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Internet Information Services. Expand the local computer directory, then right click on Default Web Site and select Properties from the cascade.

Windows Default Document Settings

After the Properties panel opens, select the Documents tab. In the Default Document listing box use the Add button to add index.htm and index.html. Now use the up and down arrow buttons on the left side to reorder the listing. Place the index.htm and index.html at the top and either move down or remove the iisstart.asp listing. Make sure you remember to hit the Apply button. Now whenever you place an index.htm in any folder, the web server will know that it's the default document and if available, it will serve it first in the directory.

Windows Properties

Using Notepad or Dreamweaver, just write a simple index.htm test document and then save it into your C:\Inetpub\wwwroot directory.

<html>
<head>
<title>Home page test</title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center">Cool! My own server home page.</div>
</body>
</html>

With a browser navigate to http://localhost You should now see your index.htm test page.

Index test page

For our last lesson we will put together a nodoubt.asp (Active Server Page) test page. Using Notepad or Dreamweaver, write the following and then save it into your C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ directory.

With a browser, navigate to http://localhost/nodoubt.asp You should now see your nodoubt.asp page. When the server sees the .asp extension, it knows to run through the test page and process any code surrounded by <% %> delimiters before releasing the page to the browser. Special note: The last version of ASP was version 3.0, and the next generation has now moved to ASP.NET, but it's still useful to understand how to use and write in ASP 3.0. Once you have a firm grasp of ASP 3.0 you can then move on to ASP.NET.

ASP test page

Well that's it! Now you know how to install your own IIS server, change the default document serving order, and create a server home page and basic .asp test page. It's important as a web developer to know and understand all these things, and it's much faster to develop and test your scripts and applications on a local machine rather than a remote one. You are well on your way to saving the Internet with your superior web code and flashy web skills.

Installing PHP for IIS:

Oh yeah, did you know you can also run .php scripts with your IIS server? I know it's mind-blowing, but it's true. See this next section for a step-by-step on how to set-up PHP for your IIS server.

What are the different versions of IIS?

IIS 1.0 - Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 3
IIS 2.0 - Windows NT 4.0
IIS 3.0 - Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3
IIS 4.0 - Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack
IIS 5.0 - Windows 2000
IIS 5.1 - Windows XP Professional
IIS 6.0 - Windows Server 2003
IIS 7.0 - Windows Vista 2006

What are the different versions of ASP?

ASP 1.0 - (distributed with IIS 3.0) in December 1996
ASP 2.0 - (distributed with IIS 4.0) in September 1997
ASP 3.0 - (distributed with IIS 5.0) in November 2000
ASP.NET - (Microsoft .NET platform) in January 2002
ASP.NET - version 2.0 arrived in November 2005

Useful external links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IIS

http://www.w3schools.com/asp

http://www.asp.net

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Server_Pages

http://www.w3schools.com/php

http://www.php.net

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Php

Disclaimer: RazorX holds no responsibility or legal claims over the contents of this tutorial. As a direct or indirect result of this information if any damage should happen to your computer or network, it is understood that no support will be given by RazorX. Ultimtely you are resposnsible for evaluating any and all material and you are responsible for consulting your computer or software documentaion before following any of these instructions for modification or installation on your system.