Hot on the heels of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer Beta comes the Microsoft Web Applications Installer. Designed to integrate seamlessly with Windows Vista RTM/SP1 and Windows Server 2008, the Microsoft web Applications Installer is a tool designed to centralize a variety of software solutions for Internet Information Services version 7.0. At this point in time, just as it is the case with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, the Microsoft Web Applications Installer is also in Beta stage.

“Web AI is a companion to Web PI, and is a single installer that runs on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 to download, install and configure many popular community and open source applications on IIS 7.0. Available applications include DotNetNuke, Drupal, Gallery, Graffiti, osCommerce, PHPBB, and Wordpress, with more on the way,” explained David Lowe, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Windows Server Division.

Both installers are served through the Microsoft – Web portal. The Web Platform Installer is focused on database technologies, web server components and development solutions, while the Web Applications Installer will provide a variety of third-party software which it fetches from the original sources. The promise from Lowe is that as Web Platform Installer is still in Beta, the tool will continue to be updated and evolve with new functionality.

“Web AI downloads each application from its original source, so if the application is updated, you know that Web AI will be pointing to the latest and greatest bits. In addition, Web AI will check for the presence of prerequisite components before installing the application, and after installation, it will offer configuration pages so that you can set up an associated database (another great reason why we included both SQL Server 2008 Express and the SQL Server driver for PHP in Web PI) and if needed, personalize your application by entering credentials and setting application options,” Lowe added.

Web Application Installer is available for download here.