How to create multiple Virtual Sites in Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Professional does allow you to host web applications, but it only officially allows one web site. That is, no virtual sites allowed like we can do with Windows 2000/2003 Server. This problem can be overcame by editing the metabase, but there are still limitations: you can have only one web site active at a time, other sites have to be stopped.

The procedure(s) to add the 2nd Web Site:

1. Open a command prompt, C:\windows>.

2. cd \inetpub\adminscripts

3. run adsutil.vbs create_vserv w3svc/2 (this command creates the 2nd instance of the web site).

4. run adsutil.vbs copy w3svc/1 w3svc/2 (this command copies the data from virtual site 1 to virtual site 2).

5. Open IIS by using ISM(Internet Services Manager), you will see the 2nd Web Site with the identical name as the first one, because you just copied it. Just change name and other settings to the one you want.

6. Re-register ASP.NET to all the sites:

cd c:\windows\Microsoft.net\Framework\v1.1.4322

aspnet_regiis /i