Enable Internet Information Service (IIS)

What Is IIS?

It is a Web Server software created by Microsoft which is designed for hosting websites.  It can be used in a standard Html page and dynamic pages like PHP pages and ASP.NET applications.To dig deeper with the definition of IIS and its history you can refer to Wikipedia.org for full details.

If you are working in a project and you want to show your progress to one of your team member in a network you might need to use IIS. Below are instructions on how to enable IIS on Windows 10.

Let’s Start:

1. Go to your control panel. You can use start Menu then search for Control Panel then select Control panel from the search result. Use the image below for your reference.
2. You can also use Run by holding window button from your keyboard and pressing R key then type keyword Control Panel.

                                               CTRL + R

       3. In the Control Panel Window select Uninstall program.

                                                                                 Control Panel

4. From the Installed Updates window click on the Turn Windows feature on or off link                  from the left pane.

                                                                         Installed Update

5. Windows feature window should pop-up, scroll down and search for Internet Information Services (IIS).Expand Internet Information Services and select option as shown in the image below.

                                                                             Windows Feature

6. Wait for windows to enable your Local IIS.

                                                                       Enabling IIS

7. To verify if  it is successfully enable, go to start menu and type IIS and select Internet information Services (IIS) as the image shown below.

                                                     Search for IIS

8. Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager

                                                               IIS Manager Dashboard

You’re done! Your Internet Information Service or IIS is successfully enabled. You can now start hosting your ASP.Net Web Applications from your local IIS.

Host ASP.NET Application in IIS

Internet Information Services (IIS) are used to host ASP.Net Web application for either used it to show your development progress or for a test run of your websites. Or if you are a freelancer and you want to show your sites to your customer, IIS might be your best and easiest way.

For beginners like me, I created simple instructions in publishing ASP.NET MVC Application in IIS.

I. Go to IIS sites root folder and create new folder.

1. First open your IIS Manager. By going to start menu and typing “IIS” and select Internet Information Services from the search result. Refer to the image shown below.

Start Menu

2.>In your IIS manager expand sites folder and right click on Default Web Sites. Then select Explore to open root directory.

                                                             Internet Information Services Manager

3.>wwwroot directory appear create a folder inside the directory. This is where we publish our Websites. In my case I name it as MySites. 

                                                                            wwwroot directory

II. Publish ASP.NET Website

My Site Preview:

                                                                                  My Site

1.> Open your project in visual studio 2013 and go to solution explorer. Right click on your project name and select publish.

                                                                      Publish

2.> In the Publish Web Window choose Profile and then create new profile name for your publish profile.

                                                                              New Profile

3.> Enter your desired publish profile name. Then press “OK”.

                                                                             Name your profile

4.> Click “Next” to proceed. Use File System as your publish method.

                                                                         Publish Method

5.> Select your published directory. In my case it is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MySites which the default website directory of IIS. Then click “Open”.

                                                                           Select Directory

6.> Lastly click on publish button.

                                                                       Publish Option

7.> Wait for Visual Studio to finish publishing.

Successfully Published

III. Convert your website to IIS Application

1.> Go to your IIS Manager and navigate to Sites-> Default Web Sites. Then search for your folder name where we published our websites. In my case I name it MySites. Right click on MySites folder and select Convert to Application.

                                                                          Open IIS Manager

2.> You’re done!! To browse your site right click on MySites Select Manage Application then choose browse.

                                                                             IIS Manager

3.> Browser will appear with your site preview.

4.> You can also access your websites using your local IP ex. http://192.168.1.2/MySites