Installing IIS 6.0 Technical Reference

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

To help protect the system from malicious users and attackers, IIS is not installed by default when you install Windows Server 2003. In addition, when you initially install IIS, the service is installed in a secure, locked mode.

In Windows Server 2003, you can install IIS by using either Control Panel or the Configure Your Server wizard. These options offer slightly different default installations:

Note

You can use the Web Platform Installer (Web PI) to easily install IIS, and applications that run on IIS. The Web PI is a free, lightweight tool that lets you install IIS and related technologies such as ASP.NET, SQL Server Express, Visual Web Developer, other popular Web applications, and more. Because the Web PI installs the latest versions of available Web Platform offerings, with just a few simple clicks you can download and install any new tools or updates. To learn more about the Web PI, see Learn more and install the Web PI.

  • If you install IIS by using Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel, only IIS is installed and enabled, so the default installation serves only static content. Features such as ASP, ASP.NET, server-side includes (SSI), Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) publishing, and FrontPage Server Extensions are either not installed or not enabled, and therefore do not work.

  • If you install IIS by using the Configure Your Server wizard, ASP.NET and ASP are automatically installed with IIS. In addition, you have the option of enabling ASP.NET and installing FrontPage Server Extensions by using the wizard.

For more information about installing IIS by using Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel, or by using the Configure Your Server wizard, see Installing IIS.

If you want to serve dynamic content, you can unlock applications such as ASP.NET, ASP, and FrontPage Server Extensions through the Web Service Extensions node in IIS Manager. For more information, see Enabling Dynamic Content.

Note

When you upgrade from a previous version of IIS, most dynamic content features remain enabled. The installation program notes the exceptions.

Be sure to install IIS on an NTFS-formatted drive. NTFS is a more powerful and secure file system than FAT or FAT32. For more information about the advantages of using NTFS, see Preparing to Install IIS 6.0.