Enabling WebDAV on IIS 6

I had a great question from someone the other day about enabling WebDAV on IIS 6, so I wrote a simple Windows Script Host (WSH) utility that does the trick. Because I'm a firm believer that writing code for one person will ultimately benefit someone else, I'm making that script the subject of today's blog post. ;-)

Note: The following script makes use of several IIS 6 metabase properties, and you can see the following topics for more information:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms525087(VS.85).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms525016(VS.85).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524576(VS.85).aspx

To use this script, use the following steps:

• Copy the WSH code listed below and paste it into a text editor, such as Windows Notepad:

  Option Explicit
  
  ' --------------------------------------------------
  ' Part 1: Enable the WebDAV Web Service Extension.
  ' --------------------------------------------------
  
  ' Retrieve an object for the W3SVC root.
  Dim objIIsWebService
  Set objIIsWebService = GetObject("IIS://localhost/W3SVC")
  ' Enable the WebDAV Web Service Extension.
  objIIsWebService.EnableWebServiceExtension "WEBDAV"
  ' Save the changes to the metabase.
  objIIsWebService.SetInfo
  
  ' --------------------------------------------------
  ' Part 2: Enable the WebDAV-related attributes for the Default Web Site.
  ' --------------------------------------------------
  
  ' Retrieve an object for the web site root.
  Dim objIIsWebSite
  Set objIIsWebSite = GetObject("IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1/ROOT")
  ' Enable the WebDAV-related access flags.
  objIIsWebSite.AccessRead = True
  objIIsWebSite.AccessSource = True
  objIIsWebSite.AccessWrite = True
  ' Enable the directory browsing - required for file listings.
  objIIsWebSite.EnableDirBrowsing = True
  ' Save the changes to the metabase.
  objIIsWebSite.SetInfo
  

• Update the metabase path for your web site to IIS://localhost/W3SVC/nnn/ROOT, where nnn is the identifier for the web site where you want to enable WebDAV. Note: The web site identifier can be found in the IIS Manager using the following steps:
  • Open the IIS manager.
  • Expand the local computer node. 
  • Highlight the Web Sites node.
  • Notice the site ID in the "Identifier" column.
• Save the file as EnableWebDav.vbs to your desktop and close your text editor.

Note: This script is not designed the new WebDAV module for IIS 7. To manage the WebDAV module in IIS 7, see the following topics:

• Installing and Configuring WebDAV on IIS 7.0
• How to manage WebDAV using APPCMD

I hope this helps!