14 DAY TRIAL // The Beta bits of Web Platform Installer were made available for download on October 1, 2008, as Microsoft attempted to actually deliver on the promise of an integrated web platform by centralizing its various components in a single location. Designed to integrate seamlessly not only with Windows Vista RTM/Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008, but also Windows 7, Web Platform Installer is essentially either the entire collection of items making up the Microsoft Web Platform or subsets tailored to specific scenarios. However, while not discussing anything specific about the tool, Microsoft promised that there was more to come.
"This is only our first beta of Web PI – in the coming weeks and months, we’ll release updates to it that offer additional functionality to allow you to set up Web applications on top of your new platform so that there’s nothing left for you to do but make your site live. And even when we release the final build, we’ve made sure to use an extensible manifest model for Web PI so that we’ll be able to include new IIS Extensions, application engines and software updates as they become available without you having to download a new version of the tool – it will automatically list what’s new," explained David Lowe, senior product manager, Microsoft Windows Server Division.
Aimed at a crowd of website developers and administrators, but also at IT professionals, the Web Platform Installer brings to the table a wide variety of components including ASP.NET; SQL Server 2008 Express Edition; IIS Extensions; Visual Web Developer; .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and even SQL Server Driver for PHP. The tool offers three standard installation options, either the full suite, the components tailored to the needs of ASP .NET developers or a custom deployment.
"Currently this is the first beta release of Web PI, but in the coming weeks, the various teams will be releasing updates that offer even more functionality to allow you to set up the Web applications you want and need. All you have to do is use Web PI to configure your environment and then you can stay up to date with the latest product releases and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform," revealed Microsoft TechNet's Joey Snow.
Web Platform Installer Beta is available for download here.