Turn on Microsoft IIS for thin client access

Turn on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and configure it with the correct settings to make your project accessible to thin clients over the network.

Please note that these instructions apply only to the following versions of IIS:
Version …on Operating System
IIS 7
  • Microsoft Windows Vista
  • Microsoft Windows 7
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
IIS 8
  • Microsoft Windows 8
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

IIS supports all features of InduSoft Web Studio, and it is robust enough to serve almost any IWS project in a production environment. It is the web server software that we recommend for most users, and to achieve the best performance during project run time, we strongly recommend that you use one of the versions listed above.

For information about installing and configuring earlier versions of IIS, see:

You need to turn on IIS only on the computer that will be your project runtime server. This may be the same computer that you are using to develop your project, particularly if you plan to test your project locally, but it does not have to be.

Note: You must have Administrator privileges on the computer in order to turn on and configure IIS, and you should be familiar with administering Microsoft Windows on a network.

For the sake of system security, IIS is turned off by default when the operating system is installed. To turn on and configure IIS in Windows:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Click the Start button, and then on the Start menu, click Control Panel; or
    • In Windows 8, swipe in from the right edge of the screen, click/tap Search, and then in the search box, type Control Panel. When Control Panel is displayed in the search results, click/tap it.

    The Control Panel window is displayed.

  2. In the Control Panel window, click Programs, and then under Programs and Features, click Turn Windows features on or off. The Windows Features dialog box is displayed.
  3. In the Windows Features dialog box, select Internet Information Services. IIS is selected with its default features, but you need to make sure that all of the features required by InduSoft Web Studio are also selected.
  4. Expand Internet Information Services > World Wide Web Services > Application Development Features, and then do one of the following:
    • For IIS 7, make sure that all of the following features are selected: .NET Extensibility, ASP, ASP.NET, ISAPI Extensions, and ISAPI Filters.
    • For IIS 8, make sure that all of the following features are selected: .NET Extensibility 3.5, .NET Extensibility 4.5, ASP, ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET 4.5, ISAPI Extensions, and ISAPI Filters.
  5. Expand Internet Information Services > World Wide Web Services > Common HTTP Features, and then make sure that Static Content is selected.
    Figure 1. Required features selected in IIS 7
    Web Studio Help windows microsoftiis 7 Turn on Microsoft IIS

    Figure 2. Required features selected in IIS 8
    Web Studio Help windows microsoftiis 8 Turn on Microsoft IIS

  6. Click OK. IIS is turned on with the selected features, but you might be prompted to restart Windows to apply the changes.
  7. After you have turned on IIS, you can use Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager to configure it. To open IIS Manager:
    1. In the Control Panel window, click System and Security, and then click Administrative Tools. The Administrative Tools window is displayed.
    2. In the Administrative Tools window, double-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

    For more information about configuring IIS 7, go to: technet.microsoft.com/library/cc753433

    For more information about configuring IIS 8, go to: technet.microsoft.com/library/hh831725

Tip: A web server typically operates on, or “listens to,” a computer’s TCP/IP port 80. Only one running process can listen to a given port, so if another process on your computer — for example, third-party SCADA software — is already listening to port 80, then it and the web server process may conflict with each other. You must either configure one of the processes to listen to a different port or use Task Manager to end the conflicting process. If you cannot identify the conflicting process, then in Windows, open Command Prompt and enter the following command to get a list of all networking processes: 
  netstat -a -o
InduSoft Web Studio -Technical Reference

Turn on Microsoft IIS