Check and get list of existing AppPools and Websites on a machine for IIS 7.0

I have been using Installshield for so long, but tasks related to IIS 7.0 found to be most amazing, as it make me learn about IIS quite a lot. I got introduced with AppCmd.exe which is a single command line tool for managing IIS 7. AppCmd enables us to easily control the server without using a graphical administration tool and to quickly automate server management tasks without writing code.

Some of the things you can do with AppCmd:

1. Create and configure sites, apps, application pools, and virtual directories
2. Start and stop sites, and recycle application pools
3. List running worker processes, and examine currently executing requests
4. Search, manipulate, export, and import IIS and ASP.NET configuration

I had a requirement in one of my web project, for showing users a list of available App Pools and Web-sites for selection. Using vb-script found to be little uncomfortable, but AppCmd.exe makes my life easy.

Note: AppCmd.exe is located in the %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\ directory. Because it is not path of the PATH automatically, you need to use the full path to the executable when executing commands like in "%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\AppCmd.exe list sites". Alternatively, you can manually add the inetsrv directory to the path on your machine so that you can access AppCmd.exe directly from any location.

List of App Pools can be get by using command: "AppCmd.exe list apppool".

Similarly we can get the list of available websites: "AppCmd.exe list site".

We can take the output of the above commands in a text file, and can read the AppPool list. Similary we can do for Website.

Check existence of any program installed on a machine through registry

Hi, reading this post? It means you are really looking for how to check for existence of MS Office or any other program via script, or through registry. There are some standard locations in the registry editor, where you could manually search for existence of some program installed on the local machine. But not everyone is comfortable with it. Also, there are chances of any accidental deletion of any wrong key, if done by some immature user.

But when it comes to script, and especially from checking within the installer, then we had some options:

1. System Search View: The system search view provides the Windows Installer capability to search for a particular file, folder, registry key, .ini file, or .xml file value on an end user's sytem prior to installation. this view is location in the left pane of the Installshield IDE, as shown in the image below:
   
   
   
   When you do right-click in the right pane as shown in the image below, a system Search Wizard opens which guides you to specify your search options for any Files, Folders, Registry Entries, and so on...
   
   
   
   
   You can specify your options according to your requirement.
   
   
2. Installscirpt Code: Another option we have is through installscipt code. We need to specify a key to search in registry. There are some in-built installscript functions which can help you in accessing registry details. One of such function of our use at the moment is RegDBKeyExist(szKeyRoot) which checks for the key in the registr yspecified by parameter szKeyRoot.
   
   A typical example for your best understanding is given below which could check for existence of MS Office on the target machine.
   
        szKeyRoot="SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Word\\";  \\key to search in registry 
       // get the registry value
       nResult = RegDBSetDefaultRoot( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE );
       if (RegDBKeyExist (szKeyRoot) < 0) then 
            return FALSE;
      else
            return TRUE;
      endif;
   
   Hope the above content will be helpful to you. In case you have some query, then please feel free to put some comments on this post, or reply to me.

Checking whether IIS 7.0 exist on a machine

Hi, This article will help to check if IIS 7.0 or lower version is installed on the target machine. There are several ways to check, both manually and through custom code by searching in registry.

1. Go To Start -->  Run. Type inetmgr and press OK. If you get an IIS configuration screen, it is installed, otherwise it isn't.
2. You can also check ControlPanel->Add Remove Programs, Click Add Remove Windows Components and look for IIS in the list of installed components.

To Reinstall IIS.

Control Pane -> Add Remove Programs -> Click Add Remove Windows Components Uncheck IIS box Click next and follow prompts to UnInstall IIS. Insert your windows disc into the appropriate drive. Control Pane -> Add Remove Programs -> Click Add Remove Windows Components Check IIS box Click next and follow prompts to Install IIS.

There are such situations in which you need to check IIS existence from the installshield using code, then you need to search for its registry on the target machine. For a helping deed, I am presenting an example below:

szKeyRoot="SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\InetStp\\Components\\";     //key to search in registry
// Set the Default root
nResult = RegDBSetDefaultRoot( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE );
    
if (RegDBKeyExist (szKeyRoot) < 0) then 
  return FALSE;
else
    return TRUE;
endif;


The return value will determine whether IIS 7.0 exist or not.