My WordPress web.config

Do you host your WordPress website on Windows Server IIS? And are you having trouble with your web.config? I often receive questions about how to use a web.config file in WordPress on Windows Server, and which settings are important for a WordPress site. Maybe it's because I'm a WordPress on Windows Server IIS enthusiast, so here is my web.config for your convenience (really, it's not that special).

Convert .htaccess to web.config

This post describes some of the IIS URL Rewrite Module web.config equivalents of commonly used Apache .htaccess settings. This is useful when you convert your Apache .htaccess to IIS web.config. The second part of this post outlines how to use Internet Information Services Manager to import and convert .htaccess rules to web.config.
Umbraco logo blue

How to optimize Umbraco 8 performance

Out of the box, Umbraco is a well built and pretty fast content management system. However, it is still important you perform some steps to further optimize Umbraco's performance and loading speed. Here on Sysadmins of the North, I wrote about "11+ tips to optimize Umbraco CMS" earlier, and in this post I write about implementing them. On a just installed and running website.
IIS Manager for Remote Administration in Windows 10

Install and setup IIS Manager for Remote Administration in Windows Server IIS (step by step)

In this article you’ll learn how to install and setup IIS Manager in Windows 11/10 to manage your website(s). You can also follow these steps to install Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager on a Windows Server Core edition, to locally or remotely manage hosted websites. This post also shows how to install IIS Web Management Service (WMSVC) on Server Core using PowerShell.
Set PHP handler accessPolicy (Request Restrictions) to Read in IIS

Disallow direct access to PHP files in wp-content/uploads/

It's recommended to disallow access to and execution of PHP files in wp-content/uploads folder. Preferably without the use of a security plugin. Blocking access to PHP files in WordPress wp-content/uploads folder is easily achieved with a .htaccess file on Linux Apache, or web.config accesssPolicy in Windows Server IIS, and here is how. Secure your WordPress site with this simple, yet effective, tip!
HTTP Basic authentication

Basic Authentication module for Windows Server IIS 10

Basic Authentication managed HTTP module for IIS 10 with virtual users support. In my pursuit of a basic authentication alternative in IIS, other than the built-in Basic Authentication module or Helicon Ape, I came across Devbridge AzurePowerTools. It's apparently one of few HTTP managed modules for IIS that enables HTTP Basic Authentication with support for virtual users.
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Tips to speed up WordPress, serve gzip compressed static HTML files

Who said WordPress is slow on Windows Server IIS? Gzip compress and serve WP-Super-Cache or Cache Enabler static HTML files, to supercharge your WordPress blog. Here is how to serve gzip compressed HTML files through Windows Server IIS: create smaller, compressed, static HTML files, that are downloaded faster. This works with WP-Super-Cache and Cache Enabler on IIS!