IIS Web Server is an internet web service, developed by .NET developers. It responds to clients’ requests using protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP. Its features provide a comprehensive service solution for applications developed with .NET. With its modular structure, it doesn’t only support the .NET applications, but also runs PHP by creating a PHP module.
Along with Windows Server, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11 also support IIS Express. Let’s take a closer look at the capabilities of IIS.
IIS installation
For the IIS installation, we are using Windows Server 2022. On the Server Manager page, click on the Manager>Add Roles and Features at the top right corner.
Before starting with the first step, we will see the information phase on the Wizard. For the later installations, if you don’t want to see this page, click “Skip this page by default” and continue.
In the next step, we need to select the installation type. To install the service on our machine, we select Role-based or feature-based installation and continue.
At the Server destination menu, it will ask you to choose the server that you want to install IIS Server on. Since we have only one server, we don’t make any changes and continue.
On the next screen, we will select the rules to activate and remove. Since we want to activate the IIS service, we select the Web Server (IIS) option.
On the next screen, it says that we need to install the features that are required for the Web Server (IIS). Click on the Add Features button and continue.
Make sure that the Web Server (IIS) is activated and then continue.
In this step, it asks us if there is any feature we want to install or not. In our case, we don’t need any extra features, thus we can continue.
In this step, it informs us about the Web Server Role (IIS) and which version will be installed
Then we can activate or deactivate the features in the IIS. You can continue without installing any extra features.
The installation is almost complete. It will inform us that the system needs to be restarted. Click the Yes button.
Everything is ready. At this point, you can make your last controls before the setup and extract the configuration file. If everything is okay for you, click on the install button and start the installation process.
It is now installed successfully on the CLOUD7 server. Click Close and restart the system.
When the server is restarted, find the Internet Information Services tool and check for the services.
Type http://localhost on a browser to check if the installation is completed successfully.
What are the features of IIS?
You can find IIS management tools’ capabilities on the list below:
| Feature | Description |
| .NET Authorization Rules | Configure rules for authorizing users to access your websites and applications. |
| .NET Compilation | Manage ASP.NET application code configuration settings. |
| .NET Error Pages | Configure HTTP error responses to return when errors occur. |
| .NET Globalization | Configure .NET Framework globalization settings. |
| .NET Profile | Manage a list of profile properties that are used to track any custom information your application requires. |
| .NET Roles | Manage a list of user groups. User groups offer the ability to categorize a set of users and perform security-related operations, such as authorization, on a defined set of users. |
| .NET Trust Levels | Configure the level of code access security (CAS) that is applied to an application. |
| .NET Users | Manage a list of user identities for an application. |
| Application Pools | Manage a list of application pools on a web server. |
| Application Settings | Manage a list of key/value pairs that are stored in the Web.config file of your application. |
| Applications | Manage the list of applications in a website. |
| ASP | Manage a list of classic ASP configuration settings. |
| Authentication | Configure the authentication methods that clients can use to gain access to your content. |
| Authorization Rules | Manage the list of Allow or Deny rules that control access to content. |
| Centralized Certificates | Configure and manage a central certificate store for a server farm. |
| CGI | Configure Common Gateway Interface (CGI) applications on the Web server. |
| Compression | Provide faster transmission times between IIS and compression-enabled browsers. |
| Configuration Editor | Manage your configuration files by pulling sections into IIS Manager. |
| Connection Strings | Manage a list of connection strings generally used by managed code applications. |
| Default Document | Configure the list of default documents (such as Default.htm). |
| Directory Browsing | Modify the content settings for browsing a directory on the web server. |
| Error Pages | Manage a list of custom HTTP error messages. |
| Failed Request Tracing Rules | Manage a list of tracing rules for failed requests. |
| FastCGI Settings | Use the Fast Common Gateway Interface (FastCGI) protocol to communicate with external applications. |
| Feature Delegation | Configure the delegation state of IIS Manager features for sites and applications on your web server. |
| FTP Authentication | Configure the authentication methods that FTP clients can use to gain access to your content. |
| FTP Authorization Rules | Manage the list of Allow or Deny rules that control access to content. |
| FTP Directory Browsing | Modify the content settings for browsing a directory on the FTP server. |
| FTP Firewall Support | Modify the settings for passive connections when FTP clients are connecting to an FTP server that is located behind a firewall server. |
| FTP IP Address and Domain Restrictions | Define and manage rules that allow or deny access to content for a specific IP address, a range of IP addresses, or a domain name or names. |
| FTP Logging | Configure logging features at the server or site level, and to configure logging settings. |
| FTP Logon Attempt Restrictions | Modify the number of times FTP allows a user to attempt unsuccessfully to log in within a specified time period before denying access to the IP address. |
| FTP Messages | Modify the settings for messages sent when a user connects to your FTP site. |
| FTP Network Security | Configure login security parameters and protect your FTP server from network-based attacks. |
| FTP Request Filtering | Manage the request filtering settings that allow Internet service providers (ISPs) and application service providers to restrict protocol and content behavior. |
| FTP Sites | Represents the UI components that are available on the IIS Manager Sites page when FTP is installed. |
| FTP SSL Settings | Manage encryption for both control channel and data channel transmissions between your FTP server and clients. |
| FTP User Isolation | Manage the user isolation mode and restrict users to their own directories. |
| Handler Mappings | Manage a list of handlers that process requests for specific file types. |
| HTTP Redirect | Configure how incoming requests are redirected to a new destination. |
| HTTP Response Headers | Manage a list of name and value pairs that contain information about a requested page, and to configure common HTTP headers. |
| IIS Manager | Represents the UI components available at the top level of IIS Manager. |
| IIS Manager Permissions | Manage IIS Manager users, Windows users, and members of Windows groups that are allowed to connect to a site or an application. |
| IIS Manager Users | Manage user accounts that can be permitted to connect to sites or applications on the web server. |
| IP Address and Domain Restrictions | Define and manage rules that allow or deny access to content for a specific IP address, a range of IP addresses, or a domain name or names. |
| ISAPI and CGI Restrictions | Manage a list of restrictions to ISAPI and CGI programs. |
| ISAPI Filters | Manage a list of .dll files that change or enhance the functionality provided by IIS. |
| Logging | Configure how IIS logs requests made to the web server and when new log files are created. |
| Machine Key | Configure hashing and encryption settings used for application services, such as view state, Forms authentication, membership and roles, and anonymous identification. |
| Management Service | Configure the management service that enables computer and domain administrators to remotely manage a Web server that uses IIS Manager. |
| MIME Types | Manage a list of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) types so you can identify the types of content that can be served from a Web server to a browser or a mail client. |
| Modules | Manage a list of native and managed code modules that perform specific tasks in the request-processing pipeline, such as authentication or compression. |
| Output Caching | Configure output caching settings and to configure rules that control caching of served content. |
| Pages and Controls | Configure the settings of ASP.NET pages and controls. |
| Providers | Manage a list of providers. |
| Request Filtering | Configure filtering rules that let you restrict protocol and content behavior. |
| Server Certificates | View the names of certificates, the fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) of hosts to which certificates have been issued, and the FQDNs of the servers that issued the certificates. |
| Session State | Configure the behavior of information maintained across browser sessions. |
| Shared Configuration | Share IIS configuration files and encryption keys between one or more IIS servers. |
| Sites | Manage a list of sites on a web server. |
| SMTP E-mail | Configure delivery of e-mail from applications that use the System.Net.Mail API. |
| SSL Settings | Manage data encryption of transmissions between your server and clients. |
| Virtual Directories | Manage a list of virtual directories in an application. |
| WebDAV Authoring Rules | Manage the list of authoring rules that control access to content. |
| Worker Processes | Manage a list of worker processes running in application pools on a Web server. |