Professional Microsoft IIS 8

IIS Manager

Microsoft had to completely revamp IIS Manager in IIS 7.0 for a few different reasons. ASP.NET has been built into IIS 7.0 from the ground up, and the previous version of the admin tool didn't have the capability to take on the additional features that ASP.NET brought to the table while displaying them in a user-friendly way. With IIS 7.0's move from a metabase configuration to a .NET configuration, administrators can delegate configuration control to the developers through the web.config and applicationHost.config files. The new interface is able to control what modifications are allowed through the configuration files and show where the configuration is being written. The new interface permits an administrator to create extensions with an easier integration of feature pages, tree view nodes, and menu items. These new extensions are automatically downloaded by remote IIS Manager clients. The new admin tool also makes it possible to administer the server over HTTPS remotely by using the Web Management Service (WMSVC). This new look more closely resembles the Windows Control Panel and presents a more scalable approach to displaying the information needed to control the web server.

Appearance

IIS Manager's look and feel remain the same as with IIS 7.0, with features you would find in a browser, such as the address bar and forward and back buttons. It also has the option to group items by area, category, or “no grouping,” which places all the objects together, in manners ...