Programmatically enable (install) IIS

Question

Sometimes there is a PC that doesn\'t have IIS. Either it disabled or either it not installed. In this case I need to enable it myself according to those steps.

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Answer 1

You can install IIS via the command line. The following command will install IIS on Windows 8 (you can edit this to add/remove certain features. It's just a command I've used in the past):

PkgMgr:

start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-NetFxExtensibility45;IIS-ASPNET45;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-Security;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

DISM:

START /WAIT DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:IIS-ApplicationDevelopment /FeatureName:IIS-ASP /FeatureName:IIS-ASPNET /FeatureName:IIS-BasicAuthentication /FeatureName:IIS-CGI /FeatureName:IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication /FeatureName:IIS-CommonHttpFeatures /FeatureName:IIS-CustomLogging /FeatureName:IIS-DefaultDocument /FeatureName:IIS-DigestAuthentication /FeatureName:IIS-DirectoryBrowsing /FeatureName:IIS-FTPExtensibility /FeatureName:IIS-FTPServer /FeatureName:IIS-FTPSvc /FeatureName:IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics /FeatureName:IIS-HostableWebCore /FeatureName:IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic /FeatureName:IIS-HttpCompressionStatic /FeatureName:IIS-HttpErrors /FeatureName:IIS-HttpLogging /FeatureName:IIS-HttpRedirect /FeatureName:IIS-HttpTracing /FeatureName:IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility /FeatureName:IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication /FeatureName:IIS-IPSecurity /FeatureName:IIS-ISAPIExtensions /FeatureName:IIS-ISAPIFilter /FeatureName:IIS-LegacyScripts /FeatureName:IIS-LegacySnapIn /FeatureName:IIS-LoggingLibraries /FeatureName:IIS-ManagementConsole /FeatureName:IIS-ManagementScriptingTools /FeatureName:IIS-ManagementService /FeatureName:IIS-Metabase /FeatureName:IIS-NetFxExtensibility /FeatureName:IIS-ODBCLogging /FeatureName:IIS-Performance /FeatureName:IIS-RequestFiltering /FeatureName:IIS-RequestMonitor /FeatureName:IIS-Security /FeatureName:IIS-ServerSideIncludes /FeatureName:IIS-StaticContent /FeatureName:IIS-URLAuthorization /FeatureName:IIS-WebDAV /FeatureName:IIS-WebServer /FeatureName:IIS-WebServerManagementTools /FeatureName:IIS-WebServerRole /FeatureName:IIS-WindowsAuthentication /FeatureName:IIS-WMICompatibility /FeatureName:WAS-ConfigurationAPI /FeatureName:WAS-NetFxEnvironment /FeatureName:WAS-ProcessModel /FeatureName:WAS-WindowsActivationService

In C#, you can create a Process that executes this command like so:

string command = "the above command";
ProcessStartInfo pStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", "/c " + command);
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo = pStartInfo;
p.Start();

Answer 2

You tag your question with InstallShield so I mention that later versions of InstallShield have support for enabling windows features:

Enabling Windows Roles and Features During a Suite/Advanced UI Installation

That said, I don't typically like to do this because you are really be intrusive with the configuration of the PC. I prefer to author a check that the required features are installed and block if they aren't.

Another thought is that ASP.NET 5.0 now supports self hosting as have other technologies such as WCF in the past. It might make sense to simply ditch the need for IIS and kill the problem that way.

Answer 3

Regarding your experience with Advanced Installer. You ended up with IIS Express installed because you used our predefined support for prerequisites. You should have been using the predefined support to install Windows Feature Bundles.

Using this support you can easily select which OS feature should be enabled and also set custom conditions. On our YouTube channel you can find examples/tutorials:

• in the following example you see exactly how IIS is configured for enabling
• here is also a more generic video, with a walkthrough over the built-in support from Advanced Installer for enabling Windows Features

Answer 4

You can install IIS from command line. First you need to enable ASP.NET 3.5:

IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;NetFx4Extended-ASPNET45

or 4.5:

IIS-ASPNET45;IIS-NetFxExtensibility45;NetFx4Extended-ASPNET45

After that you can install IIS8, basically like IIS7. Checkout the IIS7 instalation http://www.iis.net/learn/install/installing-iis-7/installing-iis-from-the-command-line