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Enabling Side-by-Side Assemblies using IIS Manager

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Side-by-side (SxS) assemblies allow ASP applications to specify which version of a SxS-supported system DLL to use, such as MSVCRT, MSXML, COMCTL, GDIPLUS, and so on. For example, if your ASP application relies on MSVCRT version 2.0, you can ensure that your application still uses MSVCRT version 2.0 even after service packs are applied to the server. Any new version of MSVCRT is still installed on the computer, but version 2.0 remains and is used by your application. SxS-supported DLLs are stored in %WINDIR%\WinSxS.

Configuring SxS assemblies requires that you know the path to the DLL, and that the COM+ manifest file exists in every virtual directory that needs to use the DLL. The COM+ manifest is an XML file that has information about where a DLL is installed. IIS does not verify that the manifest exists.

You can enable side-by-side assemblies on the IIS side programmatically or by using IIS Manager.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /user:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

To enable side-by-side assemblies on the IIS side using IIS Manager

  1. In IIS Manager, right-click a Web site or virtual directory and click Properties.

  2. Click the Virtual Directory tab, and click Configuration.

  3. If the configuration button is not available, it is because you have not created an application for this virtual directory. Click Create to create an application.

  4. In the Application Configuration dialog box, click the Options tab.

  5. Select the Enable Side by Side assemblies check box.

  6. In the Manifest file name box, type the name of the COM+ manifest file.

  7. Click OK twice.

For information about enabling side-by-side assemblies on the IIS side programmatically, see Improvements to the ASP Programming Environment.