How do I start IIS Express?

Question

I've used the Web PI to install IIS Express. In the tray, there is not the IIS Express icon. How do I start IIS Express without using the command line? I want that IIS runs permanently, so without command line.

Answer 1

See Running IIS Express from the Command Line

1. Open a command prompt.
2. cd \Program Files\IIS Express, or
   cd \Program Files (x86)\IIS Express on 64-bit OS
3. iisexpress /? to show usage

For example, you can start your IIS Express named site by issuing the command iisexpress /site:WebSite1 where WebSite1 is a site from the user profile configuration file (C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\AppServer\applicationhost.config)

Another common way to start IIS Express is to issue the command iisexpress /path:c:\myapp\ /port:80 This command runs the site from the c:\myapp folder over port 80.

You could use a *.bat that you include in your startup folder that starts IIS Express for you (using C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup or the All Users startup folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup).

Answer 2

In Windows 7 you can use the Windows PowerShell to hide the command window, for example i use:

start-process "c:\program files\iis express\iisexpress.exe" -workingdirectory "c:\program files\iis express" -windowstyle Hidden

PowerShell script execution is set to Restricted on most new systems by default so you might need to change that to RemoteSigned or something first.