Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0

by Walter Oliver

Introduction

The Web Platform Installer 2.0 (WPI) is a tool that installs Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition and the .NET 4 Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer's user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform.

The following image shows the Web PI introductory screen:

Screenshot that shows the Web Platform Installer 2 point 0. The What's New tab is open.

For Hosters

Web PI can help in the following scenarios:

  • Building reference machines used for the creation of images for dedicated or virtual dedicated offerings. Or when building the Web Server reference machine for a shared hosting environment.
  • Updating existing machines with the latest components.
  • Deploying an internal development or testing environment.
  • Referring customers to use Web PI to setup their own dedicated machines or local environments for development and testing before deploying to hosted environments.

The following image shows an example of the Web Platform tab and a subset of the available components:

Screenshot that shows the Web Platform Installer 2 point 0. The Web Platform tab is open.

For Web Hosting Customers

Web PI can help in the following scenarios:

  • Deploying a development environment with the entire Web Platform stack of components. Includes the latest Web, Database, and development tools and technologies.
  • Updating the development environment with the latest components.

The following image shows the Web Applications tab with the available components:

Screenshot that shows the Web Platform Installer 2 point 0. The Web Applications tab is open.

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