Workaround: Multiple web sites in IIS on Windows XP Professional
Summary
Today I needed to do some development on a website with my Windows XP Professional box. However, I quickly discovered that IIS will not allow more than one web site to be created. This is a confirmed limitation for Windows XP Professional. There is a workaround for this.
The Problem
I needed to be able to create a second web site so that the settings on the other one would not get modified. Short of restaging my machine to a server product, I needed a way to do development on a local website without affecting another website for a different project. Because Windows XP Professional does not allow more than one web site or more than one FTP site, I did some researching.
The Workaround
I found a workaround at http://www.bobshowto.com/iis_servers.htm that allowed me to copy the existing site to a new one... essentially, by doing the following commands at the DOS command prompt:
- > cd \inetpub\AdminScripts
- > cscript adsutil.vbs COPY W3SVC/1 W3SVC/2
This creates a second website with the same settings.
There are two immediately noticable caveats, however...
- Only one website can be started at any given time, regardless if you have changed the port on which the site resides.
- None of the sites can be deleted.
The web page referenced above also has another link to someone that has produce an ISAPI filter that allows multiple sites base on the host header... I didn't need to go that far, so I didn't play with that one; the second site was all that I needed for my productivity to continue.