Default Web Server Role Services in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

When you use Server Manager to install the Web Server (IIS) role in Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2, you are presented with roughly 40 role services to select from, relatively few of which are selected by default.

Over time, you may add and remove services for the Web Server role, leaving you at some point to wonder what a fresh installation of the role looks like when only the defaults are selected.

To answer this question without having to touch your current Web Server or do a fresh install of the Web Server Role, I created a handy list of the Web Server role services that are selected by default in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The role services available for 2008 (IIS 7.0) and 2008 R2 (IIS 7.5) are almost exactly the same. Windows Server 2008 R2 adds the WebDAV Publishing and IIS Hostable Web Core role services, but neither of these is selected by default in R2. Prior to R2, they were available as separate downloads; in R2, their functionality is included in the server itself.

For ease of reference, the list follows the categories and ordering of the role services as they appear in Roles section of the Server Manager UI. Services selected by default are in bold and preceded by an asterisk; services not selected by default are in [brackets]. The two items that are new to the 2008 R2 Web Server role are called out.

Web Server

   Common Http Features

*Static Content

*Default Document

*Directory Browsing

*Http Errors

[Http Redirection]

[WebDAV Publishing] (new in R2, not preselected)

   Application Development (no services preselected)

[ASP.NET]

[.NET extensibility]

[ASP]

[CGI]

[ISAPI extensions]

[ISAPI filters]

[Server Side Includes]

   Health and Diagnostics

*Http logging

[Logging Tools]

*Request Monitor

[Tracing]

[Custom Logging]

[ODBC Logging]

   Security

[Basic auth]

[Windows auth]

[Digest]

[Client Cert mapping auth]

[IIS client cert mapping auth]

[URL authorization]

*Request Filtering

[IP and Domain Restrictions]

   Performance

*Static Content Compression

[Dynamic Content Compression]

   Management Tools

*IIS Management Console

[IIS Management Scripts and Tools]

[Management Service]

IIS 6 Management Compatibility (no services preselected)

   [IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility]

   [IIS 6 WMI Compatibility]

   [IIS 6 Scripting Tools]

   [IIS 6 Management Console]

   FTP Server (no services preselected)

[FTP Service]

[FTP Extensibility]

   [IIS Hostable Web Core] (new in R2, not preselected)

Some useful links

For more information about each of these role services, including a list of the availability and default selections of the services in the various versions of Windows, see Available Role Services in IIS 7.0 and Available Web Server (IIS) Role Services in IIS 7.5.

For more information about using WebDAV with IIS 7, see Installing and Configuring WebDAV on IIS 7.

For more information about IIS Hostable Web Core, see Ins & Outs of hostable web core and Host your own Web Server in your application using IIS 7.0 Hostable Web Core.

For a brief listing and descriptions of the features that are new to IIS 7.5, see What's new in IIS 7.5?.