Install IIS in Windows 11 using PowerShell

Do you have a need for IIS in your Windows 11 development station, and now you wonder how to install IIS? Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable webserver for hosting anything on the web. Here I describe how you can easily install IIS and some modules using PowerShell.

Steps to install Internet Information Services (IIS) in Windows 11 using PowerShell

To install IIS in Windows 11 you need PowerShell and some of its cmdlets. The PowerShell cmdlets you will be using are:

• Get-WindowsOptionalFeature
• Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature

First, lookup the available IIS related features:

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Where-Object FeatureName -like 'IIS-*'

This lists a long list of available Windows optional features and their (installation) state. Some interesting ones are:

• IIS-WebServerRole
• IIS-WebServer
• IIS-CommonHttpFeatures
• IIS-HttpErrors
• IIS-HttpRedirect
  • Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
• IIS-ApplicationDevelopment
• IIS-Security
• IIS-RequestFiltering
  • Remove IIS Server version HTTP Response Header
  • “The length of the URL for this request exceeds the configured maxUrlLength value”
  • 3 Ways of blocking sendmail.php on IIS webserver
• IIS-NetFxExtensibility45
• IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics
• IIS-HttpLogging
• IIS-RequestMonitor
• IIS-HttpTracing
• IIS-URLAuthorization
• IIS-IPSecurity
  • IIS 10.0 FTP IP Security allow list (can also be used for regular HTTP)
• IIS-Performance
• IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic
• IIS-WebServerManagementTools
• IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility
• IIS-Metabase
• IIS-HostableWebCore
• IIS-StaticContent
• IIS-DefaultDocument
• IIS-DirectoryBrowsing
• IIS-WebDAV
• IIS-WebSockets
  • How to install the Web-WebSockets feature in IIS using PowerShell
• IIS-ApplicationInit
• IIS-ISAPIFilter
• IIS-ISAPIExtensions
• IIS-ASPNET45
• IIS-ASP (yes, really, it can be fun!)
• IIS-CustomLogging
• IIS-BasicAuthentication
  • Basic Authentication module for Windows Server IIS 10
• IIS-HttpCompressionStatic
• IIS-ManagementConsole
  • Install and setup IIS Manager for Remote Administration in Windows Server IIS
• IIS-ManagementService
• IIS-WindowsAuthentication

Yes, these are a lot of features (e.g IIS modules). My take in this is you may want to represent an actual (general) Windows Server IIS webhosting server in your local development environment. I added some links showcasing the importance of a module and why it’s interesting.

If you manage websites in IIS (remote or local) you can install and setup IIS Manager for Remote Administration.

Windows Program and Features to turn IIS features on or off

Of course you can use Windows Program and Features to turn IIS features on or off, but as an DevOps engineer I’m sure you’ll want to use PowerShell commands and cmdlets. Commands you can add to scripting to automate the roll-out of new IIS webservers.

Using PowerShell Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature to install IIS

$features = @(
  "IIS-WebServerRole",
  "IIS-WebServer",
  "IIS-CommonHttpFeatures",
  "IIS-HttpErrors",
  "IIS-HttpRedirect",
  "IIS-ApplicationDevelopment",
  "IIS-Security",
  "IIS-RequestFiltering",
  "IIS-NetFxExtensibility45",
  "IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics",
  "IIS-HttpLogging",
  "IIS-RequestMonitor",
  "IIS-HttpTracing",
  "IIS-URLAuthorization",
  "IIS-IPSecurity",
  "IIS-Performance",
  "IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic",
  "IIS-WebServerManagementTools",
  "IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility",
  "IIS-Metabase",
  "IIS-HostableWebCore",
  "IIS-StaticContent",
  "IIS-DefaultDocument",
  "IIS-DirectoryBrowsing",
  "IIS-WebDAV",
  "IIS-WebSockets",
  "IIS-ApplicationInit",
  "IIS-ISAPIFilter",
  "IIS-ISAPIExtensions",
  "IIS-ASPNET45",
  "IIS-ASP",
  "IIS-CustomLogging",
  "IIS-BasicAuthentication",
  "IIS-HttpCompressionStatic",
  "IIS-ManagementConsole",
  "IIS-ManagementService",
  "IIS-WindowsAuthentication"
)

Foreach($feature in $features) {
  Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -NoRestart -FeatureName ${feature}
}

Execute the above in an Admin Powershell command prompt. The -NoRestart parameter suppresses the constant requests for a reboot. Make sure to reboot once all features are installed and you have a fully fledged IIS webserver on your development station.

Don’t forget to enable HSTS in IIS.

What additional features are available and how to add or remove one?

How to list all installed Windows Server Features using PowerShell Get-WindowsFeature and Get-WindowsOptionalFeature cmdlets.

To see all the features available related to IIS you can use:

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Where-Object FeatureName -like 'IIS-*'

Further, figuring out what is available, installed and what’s not, is easy. Here is how:

Check for installed features

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online `
  | Where-Object { $_.State -eq "Enabled" } `
  | Format-Table -Property featurename

PowerShell provides the means to get, list & verify installed Windows and Windows Server Features. Use Get-WindowsFeature and Get-WindowsOptionalFeature cmdlets for this.

Here is getting and listing all installed Windows Server features, sorted by name:

# list all INSTALLED Windows Server features
Get-WindowsFeature `
  | Where-Object { $_.Installed -eq "True" } `
  | Format-Table DisplayName, Installed

Get-WindowsFeature `
  | Where-Object { $_.Installed -eq "True" } `
  | Format-Table Name, Installed

Get-WindowsFeature relies on the ServerManager module. If you don’t have Server Manager available, then you can use Get-WindowsOptionalFeature in Windows 11 / 10:

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online `
  | Where-Object { $_.State -eq "Enabled" } `
  | Format-Table FeatureName, State

Check for available but not presently installed features

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online   | Where-Object { $_.State -eq "Disabled" }   | Format-Table -Property featurename

Disable a Windows Feature

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName IIS-DirectoryBrowsing

If you ever need to remove IIS you can use PowerShell as well. Obviously, don’t forget to back up IIS first, and then remove IIS from Windows.