Windows 2008 and IIS7 Now Available

bills — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:53:00 GMT

Today marks the official product launch of Windows 2008 and IIS7, a capstone to 5 years of engineering work to create the best Web server on the planet. IIS7 is the foundation of Microsoft's Web platform, and offers many exciting new advancements in Web serving technology:

Easier to Manage:

IIS7 provides a simple, text-file based configuration system that makes it possible to edit configuration directly and copy configuration between machines
"IIS Manager" administration tool provides a single administration tool for IIS and ASP.NET with an all-new feature-focused design that makes it easier than ever to configure and manage the Web server
All new command-line, WMI and .NET framework APIs provide a complete set of administrative automation options for Developers and IT professionals

Lower Cost:

IIS7 allows Administrators to delegate configuration tasks to Web site owners and developers
Shared Configuration enables Web servers to share global configuration across a server farm, simplifying deployment and configuration changes in a clustered environment
All-new diagnostic and troubleshooting features in IIS7 make finding and fixing failure easier and faster than before

Powerful Hosting of Applications and Services

IIS7's new modular, extensible architecture makes it easy to customize the Web server for a minimal footprint. All-new C/C++ and .NET extensibility APIs make it possible to seamlessly add new features to the Web server, and even replace built-in IIS features with your own.
IIS7 delivers a new Integrated HTTP Processing Pipeline, which makes ASP.NET applications even more powerful than before, and enables developers to have first-class access to core Web server extensibility
Built-in FastCGI support enables open source frameworks like PHP to run fast and reliably on IIS, making IIS not only the best Web server for Microsoft technologies, but the most powerful hosting environment for any Web application.

Windows Web Server 2008 - $469 Retail Price

I'm very excited to announce an all new version of Windows which has been built specifically for internet Web serving. The Windows Web Server 2008 product is a fully capable Windows Server for Web, with support for 4 processors and 32GB RAM. In addition to IIS7, Windows Web Server 2008 supports Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Media Services. It also supports SQL Server for local applications. Read more about price and licensing options here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/pricing.aspx

If you'd like to try Windows 2008 before you buy, there is a free evaluation version of it available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx

FTP7 final release!

I'm very excited to announce the simultaneous release of our new FTP server, FTP7, which is now fully integrated with IIS7, supports FTP over SSL, custom authentication, IPv6, and many other new features. You can download FTP for x86 here http://www.iis.net/go/1619, and for x64 here http://www.iis.net/go/1620.

IIS Manager for IIS7 final release!

I'm also excited to announce the availability of IIS Manager for remote administration, which allows Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista clients to connect to and remotely manage Windows 2008 / IIS7 Web servers. You can download IIS Manager here: http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1626

New Feature - Web Playlist for IIS7 Technical Preview

Now that IIS7 is finished, the IIS team has transitioned on to a whole new set of features that will be available in the coming weeks and months from IIS.net. In addition to FTP7, one of the new features I'm excited to debut today is the Web Playlist feature for IIS7, which enables developers and IT professionals to stitch together media files into a server-side playlist. This new capability will enable Web sites to easily incorporate rich media and advertising from a variety of sources in a robust and secure manner. You can read more about the Playlist feature in the documentation, and download it here: http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1623

FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) for IIS released!

With our partner, Ready-to-Run software we are excited to announce the availability of FPSE for IIS7. You can download it here: http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1630

IIS.NET refresh!

In conjunction with the Windows 2008 launch we've also refreshed the IIS.NET site based on your feedback. In addition to an all-new visual style, IIS.NET includes a powerful new learning portal at http://learn.iis.net/ which includes lots of great technical content, much of which has been written by the IIS product team.

The end of one chapter, and beginning of another...

The past five years have been an exciting time for me personally, and for hundreds of others here at Microsoft as we've envisioned, designed, previewed, built and now shipped IIS7. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in this project over the years, and their families, for sharing your great talents and making great sacrifice on behalf of the product and our loyal customers. IIS7 is a monumental release, and something for which we can all be very proud.

And while the IIS7 project is now officially complete, there is still much more to do. IIS7 lays a foundation that the IIS team will now build on for several years to come as we develop new and exciting features that will debut on IIS.net. Be sure to stay tuned, IIS7 is just the beginning...

Good Reading... 8/14/2007

bills — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:52:23 GMT

I haven't been able to write for a few weeks due to some time off and other "distractions". (This time of year at Microsoft is especially busy for managers as we not only do all of normal work needed to develop software, but also have to deal with budgeting, performance reviews, and vacation schedules).

Over the past few weeks there have been some good articles published, so I thought I would make up for my lack of writing time by passing along a few of the interesting things I've read lately.

Netcraft madness

First, Netcraft published their August Web Server survey which shows IIS continuing to gain ground versus Apache, with another 1.4% gain for Windows/IIS, and a 1.7% slip for Apache. The amount of press pickup on this report was amazing, with a lot of positive news for IIS, including several mentions about the upcoming Server release of IIS7:

As all of these articles will point out that IIS is not the only Web server gaining market share, lighthttp has been gaining grown as has Google's front end server (which was previously reported as Apache). Still, it is great to see IIS growing it's share on the Internet and I have no doubt that IIS7 will help the momentum.

WordPress authentication integration with IIS7

WordPress is one of the most popular PHP-based blogging engines in the world, and Mike just built a cool extension for WordPress that allows for really deep integration with IIS7. If you've seen any of the integrated pipeline demos of IIS7 where we show ASP.NET Forms authentication support for all types of content (including PHP applications), and the administration power that IIS7 adds, with built-in support for managing users and roles, you have an idea just how cool this is. Read all about it on Mike's blog.

IIS7 Media Pack features and comparison with Windows Media Server

Chris Knowlton published a great post that reveals some of the features you can expect to see with the upcoming IIS7 Media Pack release and how they compare to Windows Media Server. We're preparing for the first Technical Preview of this Media Pack and still have a few surprises in store. I'm really excited for it to debut as I think it will be a really powerful addition to IIS.

New IIS Evangelist!

I was excited to hear that Drew Robbins was hired into the IIS evangelist role that I posted about a while back. He has been a Developer Evangelist for quite some time and has created quite a name for himself. I look forward to working with Drew!

How to create a site, app or virtual directory in IIS7?

This is probably the most common task an IIS administrator may have, and also one of the most frequently asked questions I see. Mike put together a great post that explains the Site/App/VDir model in IIS7 and provides sample cmd-line steps for how to create and manage them.

Understanding IIS7 configuration paths

One of the most complex pieces of IIS7 is the new configuration system. While it is a world above the Metabase, it does take some time to get used to. Mike published a great blog post on the new configuration system that explains how configuration paths work.

BillS IIS Blog : Windows Media Server

Windows 2008 and IIS7 Now Available

Good Reading... 8/14/2007