BillS IIS Blog : Developers

Lots of new software for IIS, ASP.NET, AJAX and PHP this week

bills — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:13:00 GMT

Wow, what a week of innovation for the Microsoft Web Platform. This week we released a ton of new software which, if you haven’t already, you’ve got to check out. Here is a quick overview:

IIS Search Engine Optimization v1 final release!

The IIS team shipped the final release of IIS SEO toolkit which makes it easier to optimize your Website for search engines. It acts like a mini-search engine on your computer, scans your site and then provides useful tips for how to improve the relevance of your site to search engines. This tool is now out of beta and available for download through Web PI.

ASP.NET MVC 2 beta!

The ASP.NET team has been hard at work on the second release of MVC, which is now available to beta test. Phil has a great blog post on the release with links to the download page, readme notes and the source code. There are a bunch of new features in MVC 2 including AsyncController, expression based helpers, improvements with client validation, all new areas support, and more. Read more on Phil’s blog.

ASP.NET AJAX Library beta!

The ASP.NET AJAX team also has some exciting news with the release of the ASP.NET AJAX Library beta. James has a terrific blog post with the news This is the first project accepted into the new CodePlex Foundation! (more on that later) The ASP.NET AJAX Library has a new portal at www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary with tutorials, samples, and more. Read James’ post about the news and check it out!

IIS Application Request Router 2 final release!

The IIS team also released the final version of the IIS Application Request Router v2. This is a super powerful module that provides routing and load balancing capabilities for Windows and IIS. It makes it easy to create and manage an entire cluster of Web servers. Mai-lan has a lot of info on the release in her blog post and you can download ARR v2 using Web PI today.

PHP WinCache module final release - faster PHP on Windows!

The PHP team announced today the final release of the Windows Cache Extension for PHP, or WinCache for short, which makes PHP run much, much faster on Windows. The iBuildings guys released a benchmark showing how the WinCache extension speeds up PHP by as much as 2x over standard PHP. The other exciting part of this announcement is that the sources for the extension are now available under an open source BSD license and the source code is maintained and host on http://pecl.php.net/packages/wincache/ If you install PHP using Web PI, you automatically get WinCache.

ASP.NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 beta 2 are here!

bills — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:56:07 GMT

The ASP.NET and Web tools for Visual Studio teams have been cranking away on this release all year long and we’re excited to launch Beta 2 today! MSDN subscribers can download it today…it will be available for everyone on Wednesday.

There are a ton of new features in this release, this MSDN page gives a good overview. Here are some highlights for Web developers:

Numerous improvements to Web Forms including more control over viewstate, meta tag control, new browser support, routing support for clean URLs, more control over HTML with FormView and ListView controls, filtering support in data source controls, better Web standards support and accessibility
New Dynamic Data features including a RAD experience for quickly building a data-driven site, automatic validation, field template support for GridView and DetailsView controls.
Visual Studio has undergone a face lift and now supports simpler, code optimized view, multi-mon support, enhanced multi-targeting and more..
Visual Web Developer has better support for HTML, CSS and JavaScript including auto-completion for tag names, IntelliSense for HTML and Jscript snippets, and more…
Visual Studio also natively supports the Web Deployment Tool, a powerful new packaging and deployment model for Web applications. Check out Vishal’s blog (PM for these features) for a bunch more info on this as well.
Auto-start Web Applications
And much more…

All said this is an impressive release and now is a great time to try it out and provide your feedback!

Microsoft Ajax Library Preview 6

bills — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:13:28 GMT

The ASP.NET team has been cranking away on more AJAX goodness…this time with a significant update to the Microsoft Ajax Library – Preview 6. This update includes updates to our client-side AJAX library that can be used with any type of Web application as well as deep support within ASP.NET for AJAX across ASP.NET 2.0, 3.5 and 4.0…for both Web Forms and MVC style projects.

In addition to the updated AJAX support, the team is shipping a cool new AJAX minifier tool which reduces the size of your JavaScript files to improve performance.

You can download the release from the CodePlex project and read more information on the team blogs below:

Scott – Announcing Microsoft Ajax Library…
Bertrand – Entirely unobtrusive and imperative templates…
James – How the Script Loader…will make your life wonderful

Also check out the Channel9 interview with Stephen Walther on the new release! Enjoy ~

Error connecting to SQL Server from Windows 7 / Windows 2008 R2 with ASP.NET

bills — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:41:00 GMT

Just ran into this and thought I’d share. If you are trying to connect to a "user instance" of SQL Server from your Web application running on Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 and you’re getting a message that looks like this:

Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to failure in retrieving the user's local application data path. Please make sure the user has a local user profile on the computer. The connection will be closed.

I can probably help you out.

Note: this error only happens if you have User Instance=true in your connection string. The IIS team made a change to the default identity of the worker process. Starting with IIS 7.5, Application Pools run with a unique identity based on the Application Pool name, rather than NetworkService – the default identity for IIS6 and IIS7. The primary reason for this change is to increase the security of IIS and Application Pools by default, providing a much better sandbox between Applications and other Windows services by default.

Unfortunately, the new identity does not have a user profile, and as you can see from the error, this causes the SqlClient data stack to fail. There are a few things you can do to "fix" this error: 1) switch back to NetworkService 2) switch to a user account that has a local profile (like a real user / domain user account). To do that, fire open IIS Manager and browse to Application Pools node for your computer. Click on the AppPool for the application you are trying to run and select the “Advanced Settings” task (in yellow on right). Select identity and choose NetworkService as a built-in account, or select “Custom account” and type in the user/password.

If you’re a command-line person, you can do it this way (all on one line):

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config  
-section:system.applicationHost/applicationPools /[name='YOUR_APPPPOOL_NAME_HERE'].processModel.identityType:"NetworkService"  
/commit:apphost

A big day for Web pros: WebsiteSpark, Web PI and more!

bills — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:11:43 GMT

Today we’re launching a number of really cool things for Web developers.

WebsiteSpark

WebsiteSpark is a program designed to jumpstart Web development for individuals or small companies who make a living on the Web. The program is free to join and runs for three years with no cost obligations other than a $100 program fee, payable on exit. What is in it for you?

Windows Web Server 2008 R2 – 4 processor licenses for production use!
SQL Server 2008 – 4 processor licenses for production use!
Expression Studio 3 – 1 license including Expression Web, Blend and Sketchflow
Expression Web – 2 licenses
Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition – 3 licenses
DotNetPanel control panel (to manage your servers, and allow your customers to manage their site!)

Beyond just software you also get free support, training and Microsoft will even help drive business your way. Anyone can join as long as 1) you build web sites or applications for other people and 2) your company has less than 10 employees. If you meet these requirements, sign-up today! As part of the sign-up process you will need a referral code. Contact me if you need a code, I’d be happy to sponsor you into the program! Read more about the program on the WebsiteSpark portal.

Web Platform Installer 2

I’m also happy to announce that the Web Platform Installer 2.0 is available in final release form! The Web Platform Installer (sometimes called Web PI) makes it easy to install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform including IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer, SQL Express and more! New for the final release, we’ve fixed many bugs, improved usability, added new products including Expression Web, Azure Tools and the latest releases also being announced today. We’re also launching WebPI in 9 different languages and allow users around the world to access the Web Platform in their regional language. Look for more components of the Microsoft Web Platform to be added to Web PI v2 over time. Web PI also makes it super easy to install any of the Web applications in the Windows Web App Gallery. Web PI can also now install both PHP and MySQL for applications that require it. Install Web PI today!

Trivia: since launching the Windows Web Application Gallery at MIX in March 2009 – just 5 months ago – Web PI has installed more than 840,000 applications! Do you have a killer Web application just waiting to be discovered by the masses? Want Microsoft to drive users to your community? Submit your Web app to the gallery today!

Web Deployment Tool

The IIS team just released the final 1.0 version of the Web Deployment Tool, a super powerful deployment technology that you are going to see a lot of going forward. It is like a swiss army knife for Web masters. It can migrate sites or entire servers from IIS6 to IIS7. It can synchronize Web sites or applications between multiple servers. You can package a Web site or application and then push it out to your entire server farm. It knows how to not only replicate content, but also configuration, databases, COM dll, GAC assemblies, certificates, ACLs, and a whole lot more. After about three years of development I’m super excited to see this thing in final release form. It is already being integrated into Visual Studio 2010 and from there you’ll be able to not only build but also package and deploy your applications with just a few clicks of the mouse. Other teams around Microsoft are picking this thing up and integrating it as well, so you definitely want to get up to speed with this tool. Download it today!!

Database Manager 1.0

The IIS team just released the 1.0 version of Database Manager, and IIS Manager extension that makes it super easy to manage your database, local or remote, from within the IIS Manager tool. This thing rocks! It supports SQL Server and MySQL and is one powerful tool, and completely free. Check it out!

Search Engine Optimization Toolkit – Beta 2

The IIS team also announced the released the beta 2 of the Search Engine Optimization Toolkit, another IIS Manager extension that makes it possible to learn things about your site you can’t find anywhere else. It crawls your Web site, local or remote, and reports on dozens of well known but hard to discover issues that cause your site to be less relevant to search engines. This version includes many bugs fixes and new features over the previous release, definitely check it out and send feedback to the team on the forums.

Application Request Routing 2 – Release Candidate

The IIS team is also releasing a Release Candidate of the 2.0 version of the Application Request Routing extension for IIS7/IIS7.5, which provides built-in routing, load balancing, proxying and caching support on the IIS platform. This release includes an all-new disk cache option, bug fixes and performance improvements. Read more about the release in the learn portal. This powerful extension is available for free, download it today!

More Tips and Troubleshooting Help for Classic ASP Developers

bills — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:10:18 GMT

Back in May of 2007 I posted a tips for Classic ASP developers post which has since received more than 50 comments and 85,000 views. Robert McMurray just posted a set of fabulous tutorials for Classic ASP developers. If you’re out there and having issues with Classic ASP and IIS7 and need some help, you’re not alone! Read these articles to get help:

Classic ASP is not installed by default on IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

In IIS 7.0 and 7.5, the classic version of ASP is not installed by default. Because of this, you might see HTTP 404 errors when you try to browse to an ASP page on your server, or you might see the source code for your ASP page displayed in your browser window ...

Using Classic ASP with Microsoft Access Databases on IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

Note: Microsoft Access databases have been popular for many years with developers who use Active Server Pages (ASP) for small-scale applications, but Microsoft Access databases are not designed for scalability, therefore Access databases should only be used ...

Classic ASP script error messages are no longer shown in a Web browser by default

In earlier versions of IIS, error messages from classic ASP scripts were sent to a Web browser, by default. Because these error messages might reveal sensitive information to malicious users, IIS 7.0 disables this feature by default. When your classic ASP ...

Using Failed Request Tracing to troubleshoot Classic ASP errors

One of the great troubleshooting features that is built in to IIS 7.0 is Failed Request Tracing, which lets you configure tracing rules on your server that will create detailed troubleshooting log files for custom failure conditions that you define. For example ...

Classic ASP parent paths are disabled by default

Classic ASP Parent Paths let developers use relative addresses that contain ".." in the paths to files or folders. For example, the following code excerpt illustrates an ASP page that maps a parent path: % Response.Write Server.MapPath("../example.asp")%> ...

APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH Server Variable on Windows Vista RTM

The original release of IIS 7.0 that shipped with Windows Vista returned a different value for the APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH server variable than that which was returned by previous

ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate build available now!

bills — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:30:39 GMT

The ASP.NET team just released the near-final build of ASP.NET MVC! Download it today! The tools team added a ton of new features in this release that you’ll want to check out – ScottGu outlines all of the new features and improvements in his gigantic post http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/01/27/asp-net-mvc-1-0-release-candidate-now-available.aspx

Working with the ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer tools team is a new adventure for me and I’ve been super impressed with the people and the products they are cranking out. MVC in particular is a very impressive project that offers a powerful alternative to the traditional ASP.NET webforms model of development. If you haven’t checked out ASP.NET before, or haven’t had time to look at MVC, now is a great time to do it. You’ll want to start with the following links:

Microsoft Web Platform Installer v1.0 Released!

bills — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:03:49 GMT

I’m excited to announce the immediate availability of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer v 1.0. The Web Platform Installer (Web PI) is a simple tool that makes it very easy to download and install Microsoft's entire Web Platform in one step, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform. Web PI 1.0 supports Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and of course Windows 2008.

Auto-update your Release Candidate build!

One of the cool new features we put into the Release Candidate is the ability of Web PI to upgrade itself. Try it today – if you installed the Web PI RC release in November or December, simply launch the tool again and you will see a prompt indicating that a new release is available. Say “yes” and Web PI will automatically download and install the final release version, and launch it for you!

Install clean

Been waiting for the final product? Wait no longer… if you haven’t tried Web PI yet, today is your lucky day…simply visit http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx and click the “Install Now” button. It will download and install Web PI in one click and away you go. Even if you think you already have IIS and ASP.NET installed, **get this tool** I can almost guarantee you there will be new features available for IIS or ASP.NET that you haven’t seen before..and if there aren’t today, there will be soon.

Get Ready for MIX…

If you think Web PI v1.0 is cool….just wait for MIX. ;)

Now Online: Comprehensive IIS7 Technical Reference

bills — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:33:50 GMT

If you’ve ever tried to find information on how to install a particular IIS7 feature, or how to configure it using the IIS Manager tool, AppCmd.exe, the new Microsoft.Web.Administration interface or WMI provider, this post is for you.

Every IIS7 feature is now comprehensively documented on http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/

This IIS7 Technical Reference provides a list of all the built-in IIS7 features, alphabetized for quick access. If you know the configuration name you are interested in, just type it into the URL…for example if you’re looking for information on the system.webServer <caching> setting, type: http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/system.webServer/caching and whoila, you now have a complete set of reference material on the subject. Literally hundreds of pages of documentation are now freely available at http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/ and super easy to access.

Each topic has a quick summary of what the feature is, how to install the feature as well as a quick “how-to” article (with pictures) on locating and using the feature inside IIS Manager. Each feature is carefully documented with comprehensive information on the configuration section behind each feature including information on each attribute, it’s type and default value as well as sample configuration. And perhaps best of all, every topic also has sample code for how to use the feature from AppCmd.exe, C#, VB.NET, JavaScript and VBScript! No more scavenging the forums or live search for sample code!

This reference guide could not have happened without a lot of hard work by many, especially Robert McMurray and Pete Harris (the mysterious man behind the iis.net site). Many thanks to them, we hope you enjoy this new section on our community site!

How to Run Windows & IIS in the Cloud on Amazon EC2 (in 15 mins)

bills — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:59:00 GMT

Choices abound for those looking for a place to run Web applications on Windows. The purpose of this blog post is to show a quick walkthrough of how to setup your first Windows computer in the cloud on Amazon EC2. If you’re already familiar with hosting and the cloud, skip the next few paragraphs.

The traditional approach is to use a Windows hosting provider, like DiscountASP.NET, MaximumASP.com, CrystalTech.com, etc. These long-time Windows hosting providers offer a flat monthly fee for shared (Web site) and dedicated server (full server) offerings ranging from a few dollars a month to a few hundred dollars a month. This works great for anyone who wants to set up everything from a simple family or community Web site to a small business or low traffic corporate site that can run on one server. If your site really takes off, and you want to scale it out onto many servers, you can of course pay for additional servers, and for the consulting services of your hoster to setup load balancing and more advanced network topologies. Some Windows hosters will even help you with the management of your new Web farm, which ends up being a complex set of gymnastics to backup your data , balance traffic, and deploy and manage your Web site’s content and code across a set of distributed servers. The cost and complexity of running a Web site on more than one server goes up pretty quickly. And if the traffic to your site grows and shrinks based on events related to your business, you are usually stuck with the high cost of the number of servers required to host your peak load.

New to the game are “cloud hosting” services, including Microsoft’s own Windows Azure (currently available for free in beta form), Mosso’s Cloud Sites, and Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). These cloud computing offerings differ from traditional hosting in several ways. First, they offer a more ‘elastic’ capacity model that can grow and shrink on demand. You tell your hosting provider how much capacity you need, and they automatically ramp up or down the number of servers to meet the demand. The cost of the service is usually based on usage (like your electricity bill – which is why some often refer to this cloud computing as ‘utility computing’). Microsoft, Mosso and Amazon all do this in different ways, and offer a variety of capabilities and features that are unique to each. In some future post I may take the time to review the pros and cons of each, but for now you’ll want to read up on them yourself and decide which is the best for you.

The purpose of this post is to provide a quick walkthrough of how to setup your own EC2 account and run Windows and IIS in about 15 mins. Amazon’s approach to cloud computing will be familiar to anyone who is already running Windows Server themselves, as it essentially offers Administrative access to virtual server instances running on Amazon’s infrastructure. Once you’ve created your first instance of Windows server in EC2, you can log on to your Amazon-based Windows Server via Remote Desktop and install software and manage the server the same way you would if it was running in your home or office. Amazon just released their EC2 Web Console, which makes deploying new instances of Windows Server, and connecting to them, very easy.

How to setup an Amazon EC2 account and launch your first Windows computer in the cloud

Step 1) get a free AWS account. Navigate to http://aws.amazon.com/ Unfortunately, I found a bug in IE7 that prevents some of the console from working properly, so you’ll want to use IE6 or Firefox. If you don’t have an AWS account, click the “Sign up Now” button. If you already have an account, go to Step #6.

Step 2) enter your email address and password, and click “sign in using our secure server”

Step 3) Enter your full name, and your password

Step 4) Enter your contact information, read and accept the license agreement by checking the checkbox at the bottom of the screen.

Step 5) Choose “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud”

Step 6) Click the “Sign up for Amazon EC2” button

Step 7) Review the current pricing. Note to run a Windows Server the cost ranges from $0.125 to $1.20 per instance hour (and more if you include SQL Server). At the bottom of the page, enter your credit card information and click submit.

Step 8) Enter a new address for your billing information, or select the existing address if it is the same.

Step 9) Click the “Complete Sign Up” button at the top of the page to begin.

Step 10) You’ll need a certificate to authenticate with Amazon. If you already have one, click “Upload your…”, otherwise, click “Create a New X.509 Certificate”.

Step 11) Click Yes to generate your certificate

Step 12) Download your private key and certificate files. Keep them in a safe place that is protected from other users, and back them up! When you’re done, click the “AWS Management Console” link on the left.

Step 13) Click the “Amazon EC2” tab. You may need to sign in again.

Step 14) To create a new instance of Windows, click the “Launch Instances” button.

Step 15) There are several pre-built images of Windows available. If you want one with IIS, SQL Express, and ASP.NET pre-installed, choose the first one.

Step 16) You’ll need a key pair in order to securely connect to your instance. Click the “Create & Download your Key Pair” button (note IE7 beta doesn’t like this step)

Step 17) Enter a security group name and description, and click “Continue”. Security groups are the way you configure policy for your Web server. For instance, you can open and close ports on a security group. I created a Webserver security group.

Step 18) Enter the number of instances (virtual machines) you want to create. For testing, I enter (1). I also leave it to “Small” instance type. Select your key pair name and select the security groups you want to associate this instance with (for applying policy, like firewall ports).

Step 19) Amazon will now launch your instance. Click on the “view instances” link.

Step 20) Note the instance is in the “starting” status. Wait 3-5 mins for the instance to be created and to boot.

Notice the “status” has changed to “running”. Click on the instance and choose “password”.

Step 21) you’ll want to remote desktop into your instance, which means you need the Administrative password. By default, Amazon encrypts this password. It takes a few minutes to generate and encrypt it.

Once it is encrypted you’ll be able to click the “password” button again and see the screen below. Open the keypair file you generated in Step 16 and copy + paste it into the private key field below.

Step 22) Write down (or copy into the clipboard) the decrypted password shown. Close the dialog.

Step 23) Click on the “Connect” button and note that port 3389 is not currently opened, which is the port that remote desktop needs. We’ll need to click on “security groups” in order to open it.

Step 24) Click on the security group you created in step 17) and choose “RDP” from the list of protocols below, then click “Save”

Step 25) Now click “Instances” and click the “connect” button for your instance. Note you can download a shortcut file using the link provided, which makes it easy to connect (just double click the file that downloads).

Step 26) Otherwise, fire up Remote Desktop and enter the computer name for your Amazon EC2 instance. Log in as Administrator using the password provided.

Step 27) The remote computer has an automatically generated certificate that is not automatically identified. Click “View Certificate”

Step 28) To install the certificate to your computer, click “install certificate” and follow the wizard.

Step 29) you should now be connected. Enter your Admin credentials from Step 22.

Step 30) Open up IIS Manager and start creating your Web site!

Step 31) You should also visit http://microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx and install the Microsoft Web PI tool, which helps you get all the latest extensions and update in one place.

You’ll notice that Amazon currently only has Windows 2003 available, which means that it isn’t yet possibly to run IIS7! If you’re like me, this is a real bummer as IIS7 has so many cool new features. Please send Amazon a note letting them know you would like to see Windows 2008 available on EC2!

Start-up your Web business with Microsoft BizSpark

bills — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:07:18 GMT

Starting up a Web business, especially in this economy, isn’t easy. Microsoft wants to make it easier. A few weeks ago we announced Microsoft BizSpark, a new program specifically for Web start-ups which makes it very easy to get access to the latest versions of Windows, SQL, Visual Studio – with full Microsoft support – very easy and absolutely free to get started!

What do I get with BizSpark?

Software

All the software included in the Visual Studio Team System Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN Premium subscription Expression Studio (Version 2), plus VSTS Team Foundation Server Standard Edition - for the entire development team
Production license use rights, to deploy, host and support Startup’s "software as a service" applications for delivery over the Internet, using the following products: Windows Server (all versions), SQL Server (all versions), BizTalk Server, and Office SharePoint Server for hosting; and Systems Center for managing hosting server operations.

Support

Guidance, resources and mentoring provided by Network Partners, active members of the global software ecosystem who are qualified to provide support and advice to Startups
Access to MSDN Premium: managed newsgroups, online library, online concierge, etc.
Two technical support Incidents per Startup

Visibility

Each BizSpark Startup will have the opportunity to profile their company in the BizSparkDB, an online Startup directory, hosted on the Microsoft Startup Zone web site. Startups will get exposure to potential investors, partners and customers around the world.
Opportunity to be highlighted on the BizSparkDB as a featured company and be promoted as BizSpark Company of the Week on the Microsoft Startup Zone website.

How to qualify?

If you meet these three simple criteria, you can sign-up today:

Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business^[1],
Privately held, and in business for less than 3 years^[2], and
Less than US $1 million in annual revenue^[3].

What happens after three years of participation in BizSpark?

In addition to responsibility for the USD$100 program offering fee, Startups can continue to use the development tools they previously obtained through the program. If Startups wish to continue to receive updates to development tools, Startups can renew their MSDN subscription at usual rates and terms. To continue to use the production licenses, Startups may choose to take advantage of a licensing program like Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement program (or other Microsoft licensing programs that may be available at the time), but are in no way obligated to do so.

How do I get a sponsor?

In order to protect the program from abuse, Microsoft has put in place a sponsorship requirement. Finding sponsorship couldn’t be easier, the current list of sponsors is included in the sign-up process. If you don’t already belong to one of the existing sponsorship organizations, I can sponsor you! Just contact me through the ‘contact me’ link and I’ll be happy to help you.

How easy is it to sign-up?

It is really easy, I did it in less than 5 minutes. Here are the steps:

1) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ and click “Join BizSpark now!”

2) Sign in with your Live ID or create a new Live ID

3) Click the “I Accept” check boxes, and enter your enrollment code (If you don’t already have a sponsor, contact me and I’ll help you get started!)

4) Provide us some basic information about your start-up

5) Identify your primary contact

6) You’re done!!! Now you can manage your BizSpark account from here. Note your BizSpark Subscription ID (blanked out in red). One of the things you’ll want to do next is activate your MSDN subscription using this ID. You’ll need to do this in order to start downloading the software.

7) To activate your MSDN subscription, visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/add/default.aspx and enter your name, email and the BizSpark subscription ID from the previous page, click the “I acknowledge and accept” checkbox and submit ‘OK’. (Note, it may take 4-6 hours for your MSDN subscription to become available after signing up for your BizSpark account. If MSDN doesn’t find your subscription, check back later.

8) Once you’re up and running you may want to find a Windows hoster who can work with you and your production use licenses to offer your low-cost, discounted hosting services. Through the BizSpark Start-up page you can click the “Manage Hoster Relationship” and find hosters in your country which are part of the program.

Have questions? Leave me a comment. You may also want to check out the BizSpark FAQ: http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/BizSpark/Pages/FAQ.aspx

Microsoft Web Platform Installer Release Candidate – Now works with XP and Windows 2003!

bills — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:32:00 GMT

I’m excited to announce the availability of the Release Candidate version of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Web PI). **Update 1/20/2009 - the final v1.0 release is now available!**

Web PI is a free tool that makes it simple to download and install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer Express and SQL Server, along with a lot of cool IIS extensions like URL rewrite and ASP.NET MVC.

Web PI offers a simple experience for downloading and installing the entire stack through a single installer to help you obtain the software you need to build and run a complete Web solution on the Microsoft Web platform, whether you are using Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008.

Run Web PI to get started, and then run it again anytime to check for new extensions to the platform. Every time Web PI is run it checks online to ensure the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform are downloaded. Give Web PI a try today!

ASP.NET supported on Server Core - Windows Server 2008 R2

bills — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:18:11 GMT

In case you haven’t already heard the news, ASP.NET will now be enabled on Windows Server Core starting with Windows Server 2008 R2.

If you're not familiar with Server Core, it is a low footprint Server installation option that lays down just the minimal footprint to boot up the server, it doesn't even install the Shell! This has several key benefits. First, it means server core uses less disk and memory footprint. In our testing, we see a little over 1GB disk footprint and the server runs well starting with just 512MB ram! Of course, fewer features also means a lower attack surface and less frequent patching, as well as fewer things to manage.

When I announced IIS7 on Server Core supported last year, it came with a big caveat: no ASP.NET support, since the .NET framework itself was not available on Server Core. Fortunately the .NET framework and Windows teams have done the work needed to make that possible. Look for a beta coming soon…

Why IIS7? Top 12 cool features…

bills — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:13:45 GMT

Every time I talk with customers in meetings or at conferences I’m struck by how many cool amazing new capabilities IIS7 has. I can go on for literally hours talking about the new features and benefits, and showing demos. And with each new IIS7 Extension, the list of new features just gets bigger and bigger. A few months ago I realized we didn’t have the top list of features written up anywhere, and so we started the process of distilling down the list to the top 10. We almost made it! We ended up with the top 12 reasons you should get IIS7 today. Check them out here:

http://www.iis.net/getstarted

Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding a cool demo for each of the reasons to show the features in action. Be sure to check back soon!

IIS7 URL Rewrite Extension is finished – download now!

bills — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:04:56 GMT

I’m excited to announce that the IIS7 URL Rewrite extension is finished and available for download. For more information on some last minute features we added, and how to download it, see Ruslan’s blog post here: http://blogs.iis.net/ruslany/archive/2008/11/10/url-rewrite-module-release-to-web.aspx

Many, many, many customers have asked me for URL Rewrite capabilities over the years, and I’m happy to finally provide a high performance, reliable, and fully supported solution from Microsoft. URL Rewrite has many very cool features for Web applications and makes managing URL Rewrite rules easier to create and manage than any other solution out there. If you have IIS7, and you care about having clean URLs that search engines love to index, you need URL Rewrite. Download it today!