This week IIS team has released an update for FastCGI module in IIS 7.0 that closes this remaining feature gap and ensures that FastCGI functionality is consistent across all versions of IIS.

The update can be downloaded from the following locations:

Update for Windows Server 2008 fot Itanium-based System (KB980363)
Update for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems (KB980363)
Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB980363)
Update for Windows Vista (KB980363)
Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB980363)

The features that are enabled by this update:

• Monitor changes to a file. The module can be configured to listen for file change notifications on a specific file and when that file changes, the module will recycle FastCGI processes for the process pool. This feature can be used to recycle PHP processes when changes to php.ini file occur. To enable this feature use the monitorChangesTo setting in the <fastCgi> configuration element.
• Real-time tuning of MaxInstances setting. This MaxInstances setting dictates the maximum number of FastCGI processes which can be launched for each application pool. Set it to 0 to let FastCGI module automatically adjust the number of instances up or down based on the system load and number of requests waiting in the queue.
• STDERR stream handling. There are several options of how the module can handle text sent by FastCGI application on STDERR. The module can send the error data as a failure response to the HTTP client or it can ignore the error and send whatever was received on STDOUT as a response with 200 status code. This behavior is controlled by the stderrMode setting.
• Sending a termination signal to FastCGI processes. The module can be configured to send a termination signal to FastCGI process before terminating it. This enables FastCGI processes to do a clean shutdown before getting killed. The signalBeforeTerminateSeconds setting can be used to specify how long the module will wait before it forcefully shuts down the FastCGI process that does not respond to the termination signal. This feature is disabled by default.
• _FCGI_X_PIPE_ environment variable. This variable is set by FastCGI module and it contains the name of the named pipe that is used for communication between the module and FastCGI process.
• Relaxed enforcement of response headers syntax. The FastCGI module now has less strict enforcements for the correctness of the response headers.
• Using UTF-8 encoding for server variable values. By default FastCGI uses ASCII encoding when setting server variables. If a FastCGI application requires UTF-8 encoded values for certain server variables, the module can be configured to use UTF-8 only for required server variables. Follow these instructions to enable this functionality.

In addition to that several important bugs have been fixed, most notable of those are the ones reported by Franklin Tse:

• FastCGI module replaces redirect status code set by PHP with HTTP 302
• Custom application errors were masked by the generic IIS errors

If you are using IIS 7.0 to host PHP applications, then it is highly recommended to apply this update to ensure you have the latest version of FastCGI module.

You can use the Web Platform Installer (Web PI) to easily install IIS, and applications that run on IIS. The Web PI is a free, lightweight tool that lets you install IIS and related technologies such as ASP.NET, SQL Server Express, Visual Web Developer, other popular Web applications, and more. Because the Web PI references and links to the latest versions of available Web Platform offerings, with just a few simple clicks you can download and install any new tools or updates. To learn more about the Web PI, see Learn more and install the Web PI.

You can also install ASP.NET 2.0 (3.0 and 3.5) using the Windows Vista and Windows 2008 user interface - just install the ASP.NET component located under IIS->Word Wide Web Services->Application Development Features. You can find this set of components in Windows 2008 by clicking Start, and click Server Manager. Expand the left-hand treeview in Server Manager and click Manage Roles, and then Web Server (IIS). In the right-hand pane look for an option that says Add Role Services. If you're on Windows Vista, click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, and then Windows Features. Look for the following tree of features under Internet Information Services (IIS):

ASP.NET 1.1 is not included in Windows Vista or Windows 2008 and must be downloaded and installed manually. This post shows you how: 

Step 1: Install "IIS Metabase Compatibility"

The IIS7 "Metabase compatibility" component is required to successfully install ASP.NET 1.1. 

To install it on Windows 2008 Server, click Start, and click Server Manager. Expand the left-hand treeview in Server Manager and click Manage Roles, and then Web Server (IIS). In the right-hand pane look for an option that says Add Role Services. This takes you to wizard where you can install "IIS Metabase Compatibility". 


If you're on Windows Vista, click Start, click Control Panel, click Programs, and then Windows Features. Look for Internet Information Services (IIS) and install "IIS Metabase Compatibility". 

Step 2: Install the .NET Framework v1.1 and .NET Framework v1.1 SP1

Install Framework v1.1, SP1, and ASP.NET's security update to SP1:

• •.NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package 
• •.NET Framework Version 1.1 Service Pack 1 
• •ASP.NET Security Update for .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 

When you install .NET Framework Version 1.1, and SP1 for .NET Framework Version 1.1, you'll see the following dialog. Click Run program.



note: If you do not install Framework v1.1 SP1, you may run into Data Execution Prevention errors with messages like "IIS Worker Process has stopped working". This is expected. Installing .NET Framework v1.1 SP1 will fix this.

Step 3: Enable ASP.NET v1.1 ISAPI Extension

Enable ASP.NET v1.1 ISAPI as an allowed ISAPI extension. To do this, open "IIS Manager" administration tool. In the features view, click on the "ISAPI and CGI Restrictions" feature. In the actions pane, click "add"

Extension: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_isapi.dll 
note: change drive if your system drive is not C:\ 
Description: ASP.NET v1.1


You can also do by running the following command line:

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_regiis -enable 

Step 4: Add IgnoreSection Handler to v1.1 machine.config

ASP.NET v1.1 will throw runtime exceptions out of the box if you have IIS configuration in the web.config files that are read by your ASP.NET v1.1 applications. To make ASP.NET v1.1 ignore IIS configuration sections, open the Framework v1.1 machine.config file (%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\config\machine.config) and add the following section entry just above the bottom tag for the <configSections> element:

<section name="system.webServer" type="System.Configuration.IgnoreSectionHandler, 
System, Version=1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" /> 
</configSections> 

Step 5: Move Site or Application to ASP.NET 1.1 Application Pool

During installation, Framework v1.1 creates an application pool called "ASP.NET 1.1" that is configured to load Framework v1.1 upon startup. To move your site or application into this application pool using IIS Manager, please see our online documentation. You can also do this from the command line by navigating to the %windir%\system32\inetsrv directory and running the following command line:

appcmd set app "Default Web Site/" /applicationPool:"ASP.NET 1.1"If you would like to create a new application pool that's configured to load Framework v1.1, please see our online documentation for creating an application pool. You can also do this from the command line by navigating to the %windir%\system32\inetsrv directory and running the following command line:

appcmd add apppool /name:"NewPool" /managedRuntimeVersion:"v1.1"

You can use the Microsoft® Web Platform Installer (Web PI) to easily install Internet Information Services (IIS), and applications that run on IIS. If you choose to install IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5 (collectively known as IIS 7) manually, you can use this article for guidance.

Ensure that you have installed one of the supported editions of Windows Vista® and Windows 7 before proceeding.

• •Windows Vista® Ultimate 
• •Windows Vista® Home Premium 
• •Windows Vista® Business 
• •Windows Vista® Enterprise 
• •Windows® 7

Also be sure that you have administrative privileges on the computer. Note that by default, you do not have administrative privileges if you are logged on as a user other than the built-in administrator, even if you were added to the local Administrators group on the computer (this is a new security feature in Windows Server® 2008 called Local User Administrator). Log on either to the built-in administrator account, or explicitly invoke applications as the built-in administrator using the runas command-line tool. 

Note that you can run runas /user:administrator cmd.exe so that every application you run from that command line will be elevated, eliminating the need to use the runas syntax from that command line. 
If you are logged on to an account other than the built-in local administrator account, you may see the following security alert dialog box.