Configure HTTP Settings (IIS 7)

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

IIS can provide a better user experience for visitors to your Web site by letting you control the content that is returned when a Web page is requested. IIS also lets you deliver custom error messages whenever a problem occurs with your Web site or an application on your Web site. Common HTTP features include the following areas:

  • Default Document

  • Directory Browsing

  • HTTP Error Pages

  • HTTP Redirection

  • Headers

  • MIME Types

Default Document

Default documents let you specify a list of files that can be returned to client browsers when a document name is not specified in requests.

For more information about default documents, see Configuring Default Documents in IIS 7.

Directory Browsing

Directory browsing lets you return a directory listing to client browsers when a document name is not specified in requests.

For more information about directory browsing, see Configuring Directory Browsing in IIS 7.

HTTP Error Pages

Custom error pages let you provide a friendly or a more informative response to visitors to your site when the content requested cannot be accessed. You can change the default settings in IIS and configure IIS to return a custom error page whenever an HTTP error occurs.

For more information about how to configure error pages, see configuring Configuring HTTP Error Responses in IIS 7.

HTTP Redirection

Redirection refers to the process of configuring the Web server to issue a redirect message to the client, such as HTTP 302, which instructs the client to resubmit the request for a new location. You can configure redirect rules that will cause the end user's browser to load a different URL than the one originally requested.

For more information about how to configure redirect rules, see Configuring HTTP Redirection in IIS 7.

HTTP Response Headers

HTTP headers are name and value pairs that contain information about a requested page. This information includes the HTTP version, date, and content type. You can create custom headers to pass special information in responses to clients.

For more information about how to configure headers, see configuring Configuring HTTP Response Headers in IIS 7.

MIME Types

MIME types identify the types of content that can be served to a browser or a mail client from a Web server. You can add, edit, or delete MIME types.

For more information about how to configure MIME types, see Configuring MIME Types in IIS 7.