Users who are new to .NET web development keep asking asking questions about CSWorks installation errors related to IIS and ASP.NET, here are some of them:
Cannot connect to Internet Information Server. (-2147221164)
IIS (Internet Information Services) version 5 or higher must be installed
IIS (Internet Information Services) version 7 or higher and IIS 6 Management Compatibility (appcmd.exe) must be installed
All these messages signal about the same thing: IIS/ASP.NET is not working properly on this machine. Please follow the steps below to install IIS/ASP.NET on your machine
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Vista
I will describe the process for Windows Server 2008. Windows 7 interface is very similar, Vista interface is slightly different, but names and descriptions are pretty much the same.
In "Programs and Features", click on "Turn Windows features on or off". See screenshot.
Add Web Server Role if needed, and click on it to configure. See screenshot.
Select all Web Server role service required for ASP.NET application hosting as on the screenshot below. Please pay special attention to the "Application Development" and "Management Tools" sections. See W2K8 screenshot , or Windows 7 screenshot.
You may need to enable ASP.NET ISAPI extension manually. Find "ISAPI and CGI Restrictions" under IIS properties (see screenshot), and enable ASP.NET extensions (see screenshot).
Windows XP
Go to Settings -> Control Panel ->Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components. Select "Internet Information Services", and select required components - see screenshot.
Navigate to your Microsoft .NET windows directory which is usually C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 and run aspnet_regiis -i and aspnet_regiis -c.
Go to My Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Internet Information Services, Select "Default Web Site", right-click on it and modify ASP.NET tab of site properties so it uses ASP.NET 2.0. See screenshot.
Update: starting from CSWorks 1.4.3820, choose ASP.NET 4.0 in this drop-down.
Windows Server 2003
Go to Settings -> Control Panel ->Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components. Select "Internet Information Services", and select required components - see screenshot.
Navigate to your Microsoft .NET windows directory which is usually C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 and run aspnet_regiis -i and aspnet_regiis -c.
Go to My Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Internet Information Services, Select "Default Web Site", right-click on it and modify ASP.NET tab of site properties so it uses ASP.NET 2.0. See screenshot.
Update: starting from CSWorks 1.4.3820, choose ASP.NET 4.0 in
this drop-down.
Select "Web Service Extension" node of local IIS server and enable ASP.NET v2.0 extension.See screenshot.