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We were always using IIS locally on Windows 10 and older without any issues.

After update to Windows 11, there are a lot of problems with IIS installation - one of them being that the IIS manager is always empty.

Empty IIS manager

We managed to solve this specific problem, but there are many more coming up and it is not viable to do this type of fixes on customers PCs.

Is there any way to be sure that the IIS installation on Windows 11 will work "from the box" as on older Windows?

If not, can you please suggest best alternative to IIS for hosting .Net web applications?

EDIT: our customers usually use the web app on 2 or 3 computers at tops, it would be too much to ask them to provide Windows Server. Also, all of our customers use Windows, so no other OS can be added.

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  • 3
    Use windows server, not desktop OS
    – Romeo Ninov
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 9:14
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    Also Microsoft released .Net Core for all major operating systems and architectures; if you only depend on Core you may consider e.g. to use Linux distro of your choice as hosting OS. Check against Microsoft .Net Core website which one to choose.
    – Nikita Kipriyanov
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 9:20
  • Edited a question. Our customers usually use the web app on 2 or 3 computers at tops, it would be too much to ask them to provide Windows Server.
    – Matt
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 9:32
  • @Matt, check the comment of Nikita about using Linux
    – Romeo Ninov
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 9:36
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    Smells like XY problem. There are decent direct solutions but they all were rejected with shady reasons. Those are very strange regulations that imply this extremely bad design: to have 2-3 desktop machines one of which has to host IIS. Either you understand your regulations wrong or someone made a bad design choice somewhere else, or both. Or regulations might imply that you indeed must have a dedicated server, even for 2-3 computers — then you should agree and do that.
    – Nikita Kipriyanov
    Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 12:18

1 Answer 1

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If you're facing issues with IIS on Windows 11 and want a more stable and reliable alternative for hosting .NET web applications on Windows desktop systems, you can consider using the IIS Express or Kestrel web servers, which are lightweight and designed for development and hosting on Windows desktop environments. These alternatives can provide a smoother experience compared to the full IIS on Windows 11 desktop systems.

  1. IIS Express:

    • IIS Express is a lightweight, self-contained version of IIS that is designed for developers and is suitable for hosting .NET web applications on Windows desktop systems.
    • It's easy to install and can be configured to work with Visual Studio, allowing you to develop and test web applications locally.
    • IIS Express doesn't require administrative privileges and can be used for development without the need for server-grade configurations.

    To use IIS Express, you can configure your .NET project in Visual Studio to use it as the development server. Visual Studio provides built-in support for IIS Express, making it easy to develop and test web applications.

  2. Kestrel:

    • Kestrel is a cross-platform, open-source web server developed by Microsoft and is the default web server for ASP.NET Core applications.
    • While it's primarily designed for ASP.NET Core applications, Kestrel can also host other .NET applications.
    • Kestrel can run as a standalone server or be reverse-proxied behind a web server like Nginx or Apache if needed.

    To use Kestrel, you can create and configure an ASP.NET Core project in Visual Studio or use the .NET CLI to create and run web applications.

These alternatives should provide a more stable experience for hosting .NET web applications on Windows 11 desktop systems. They are well-suited for development and testing scenarios and do not require the complexities of full IIS installations. However, keep in mind that for production environments or scenarios with more extensive hosting needs, you may still want to consider Windows Server and full IIS.

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