Testing Applications for Compatibility with IIS 6.0

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

You can begin to test the compatibility of an application during the setup process for each application that you install on IIS 6.0.

To perform a setup test, complete the following steps:

  1. Install the application by using the setup software provided.

  2. Examine the IIS log (in \\Windows\System32\LogFiles\W3SVCxxx) for messages that indicate a WWW service failure. Also, look at the system Event log for 500-level errors.

Some common incompatibilities can be identified when you set up applications to run in IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode. You can recognize these common incompatibilities by their symptoms, and then take the appropriate action to resolve them.

Version Detection Incompatibility

During setup, some applications fail to detect the IIS version correctly because they try to read non-standard registry keys that do not exist in IIS 6.0. The supported version information is under the following registry key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp

Symptoms

Some applications check for a 5 or a 4 in the version information, and then quit setup if the value is 6.

Non-standard registry locations where applications might look for version information include the following:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC\Parameters

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetMGR\Parameters

Resolution

Add the registry keys that the application is searching for to the registry. Otherwise, you cannot run the applications until you modify them to search for an existing registry key.

Wwwroot and Scripts Retrieval Incompatibility

Some applications use a nonexistent registry key to retrieve wwwroot and scripts. When this is true, the following message appears during setup:

HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/W3svc/Parameters/Virtual Roots
"/ "=REZ_SZ:<physical location of wwwroot> 
"/Scripts"=REZ_SZ:<physical location of scripts>

Symptom

Setup shows no default value for the wwwroot and scripts directories.

Resolution

Add the registry keys that the application is searching for to the registry. Otherwise, you cannot run the applications until you modify them to search for an existing registry key.