IIS Express vs Default IIS that comes with Windows 7

iis iis-express
Mark Pearl picture Mark Pearl · Dec 5, 2011 · Viewed 66.6k times · Source

I am new to the world of IIS and I wanted to know the following...

I have heard about IIS Express. I run Windows 7 Ultimate and have installed the IIS that comes packaged with Windows 7.

As a developer, is there any major benefit for me if I install IIS Express over the default IIS that comes with Windows 7 for .Net Web projects?

Answer

Peter Munnings picture Peter Munnings · Dec 6, 2011

Here are the differences from http://www.mywindowsclub.com/resources/3302-Key-differences-between-IIS-IIS-Developer.aspx.

If you already have IIS installed - its a better product. IIS express would only be used by people who don't have access to IIS or want something that is lighter than IIS but more like IIS than Cassini.

  • Integrated with OS
    • IIS 7 ships with the operating system and is tightly integrated to Windows.
    • IIS developer express is a separate downloadable tool
  • Targetted users
    • IIS 7 is for both developers as well as for production purposes.
    • IIS developer express can be used only for development purposes and not for production.
  • Supported Windows editions
    • IIS 7 will work only on Windows Vista and newer editions of Windows. In case of server OS, IIS 7 will work only on Windows 2008.
    • IIS developer edition will work even on older version - starting from Windows XP and newer.
  • Process model and activation
    • In IIS 7, the worker thread is automatically launched and managed by Windows Process Activation Service.
    • In case of IIS Express, user has to handle this.
  • FTP support
    • IIS developer express does not support FTP while IIS 7 supports it.
  • WCF support
    • IIS Developer express supports only WCF over HTTP.
    • IIS 7 supports WCF including over TCP, Named Pipes, and MSMQ.
  • Multi developer support
    • IIS 7 is a single user application.
    • IIS Developer express supports multi developer environment. Configuration files, settings, and Web content are maintained on a per-user basis.
  • Visual Studio integration
    • All editions and versions of Visual Studio have built-in support for IIS 7.
    • Only VS 2010 and future versions will have built-in support for IIS developer express.
  • Runtime extensions
    • IIS developer has support for URL Rewrite and FastCGI.
    • Webmatrix offers support for SEO, database management and Web Deployment. Other extensions that are offered with IIS are not yet tested with IIS Developer express.
  • Management Tools
    • IIS 7 is managed using the IIS Manager.
    • IIS Developer express can be managed using Webmatrix. Also, the express edition has support through system tray.
  • Port used by IIS
    • The default website comes with IIS 7 listens to port 80.
    • The default website part of IIS developer express listens to port 8080 to avoid conflicts with IIS 7 when they are running side by side.

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