11/29/2014

IIS7.5ExpressReadme:TheOfficialMicrosoftIISSite

IIS 7.5 Express Readme

By Vaidy GopalakrishnanFebruary 26, 2012

Contents
Overview
Installation
Using IIS 7.5 Express
Supported Platforms and Architectures
Changes to IIS 7.5 Express
Known Issues and Limitations
For More Information

Overview
Internet Information Services IIS 7.5 Express is a free, simple and selfcontained version of IIS that is
optimized for developers. IIS Express makes it easy to use the most current version of IIS to develop and
test websites. It has all the core capabilities of IIS 7 and above as well as additional features to ease
website development including:
It doesn't run as a service or require administrative privileges to perform most tasks
It works well with ASP.NET and PHP applications
Multiple users of IIS Express can work independently on the same computer

Installation
You can install IIS 7.5 Express using Web Platform Installer, or through the Microsoft Download Center.

Using IIS 7.5 Express

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You will most likely need an Integrated Development Environment to build web applications over IIS 7.5
Express. Microsoft WebMatrix provides a simple and integrated user experience for building both ASP.NET
and PHP websites using IIS 7.5 Express. You can use IIS 7.5 Express with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Beta to
build and test web applications instead of the builtin ASP.NET Development Web Server also known as
Cassini. It is also possible to run IIS 7.5 Express using the command line.

Supported Platforms and Architectures

IIS 7.5 Express supports the following Windows editions.
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Vista SP1 or later
Windows XP SP3
Windows Server 2003 SP2

Both 32bit and 64bit systems are supported, however only a 32bit build of IIS 7.5 Express exists.

Changes to IIS 7.5 Express

The 7.5.1190 version of IIS 7.5 Express that was released in March, 2012, contains several bug fixes from
the the original 7.5.1070 version of IIS 7.5 Express that was released in April, 2011, but no new features
were introduced.

Known Issues and Limitations

Issue: Cannot run IIS Express using the /path command line option after installation
Running iisexpress.exe with the /path option results in the error: Temp configuration file settings error.
The system cannot find the file specified. This is due to a bug where the redirection.configfile isn't being
setup correctly.
Workaround
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Running iisexpress.exe without any arguments once will setup a copy of redirection.config under the user
profile directory. You will then be able to successfully run iisexpress.exe with the /path option.
Issue: WCF applications fail after .NET 3.5 is installed
The default applicationhost.config file for IIS 7.5 Express needs to be different depending on whether or
not .NET 3.5 is installed. If .NET 3.5 is missing when IIS 7.5 Express is installed, the
default applicationhost.config file will include handlers for.NET 4.0 only. Subsequently installing .NET 3.5
can lead to problems since the default applicationhost.config hasn't been updated.
Workaround
The IIS 7.5 Express installation folder includes a WCF35Setup.js script that is designed to solve this
problem. Running this script from a command prompt will refresh the defaultapplicationhost.config file to
work with .NET 3.5.
Limitation: IIS 7.5 Express doesn't honor library settings in Windows 7
IIS 7.5 Express only understands the default documents folder in Windows 7. It doesn't support non
default document folders and will continue to utilize the default documents folder for configuration files,
log files and other settings.
Workaround
None
Limitation: Stopping IIS 7.5 Express from WebMatrix or Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Beta will abort any running
websites
Stopping IIS 7.5 Express from WebMatrix or Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Beta won't cleanly shutdown any
running applications.
Workaround
Shutdown IIS Express instances from the system tray application to cleanly terminate any running
websites.
Issue: On Windows Server 2003, IIS Express does not start for a nonadministrative user
On Windows Server 2003, when you launch a page or start IIS Express, IIS Express does not start. For Web
pages, an error is displayed that indicates that the application has been started by a nonadministrative
user.
Workaround
Run IIS 7.5 Express as an administrative user. For more details, see the following KnowledgeBase article:
An application that is started by a nonadministrative user cannot listen to the HTTP traffic of the
computer on which the application is running in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP.
Issue: When you install IIS 7.5 Express, a registry key may be left in Wow6432Node
When you install IIS 7.5 Express from your system, the registry key for IIS 7.5 Express may be left under
the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\IISExpress path.
Workaround
Remove the orphaned IIS 7.5 Express registry key:
1. Open the Windows Registry Editor.
2. Locate the following registry key:
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\IISExpress\7.5

3. Rightclick the 7.5 registry key and click Delete.

4. Click Yes when prompted to delete the key.
5. Close the Windows Registry Editor.

For More Information

You can learn more about IIS 7.5 Express and related products using the following links:
IIS.net
Microsoft.com/web

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