John Gordon

Assistant Professor, David Eccles School of Business

Associate Instructor, College of Humanities

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Tech Guide: Install IIS on Windows 11 Pro

A step-by-step guide for installing and testing the IIS web server.

Web Server Beginner Updated June 2026

Disclaimer & Important Cautions

These Tech Guides and instructions are provided in good faith as a general educational guide. Technology changes over time, and settings, software versions, installation steps, and security practices may vary by system.

I cannot guarantee that these steps will work in every environment, and I am not responsible for data loss, configuration problems, system errors, security issues, downtime, or other problems that may result from following this guide.

  • Back up important files before making system or software changes.
  • Document your current settings before changing them.
  • Use administrator privileges carefully.
  • Do not perform these steps on a production system unless you understand the risks.
  • Delete or disable test files after testing.
  • When in doubt, consult official documentation or a qualified technician.

Overview

This guide shows how to install and test Internet Information Services (IIS) web server on Windows 11 Pro and test that it is working.

Important Notes

  • The IIS web server can only be installed on Windows platform computers.
  • Also, IIS cannot be installed on Windows Home Editions, you must have (or upgrade to) Windows Pro Version 10 or 11 in order to install and use IIS.

Main idea: Install and test IIS.

Requirements

  • Windows 11 Pro Edition.
    • Note: You must have the Pro edition of Windows in order to add the IIS web server. IIS will not install on the Windows Home Edition.
  • Administrator access to the computer.
  • A web browser to test the installation of IIS.
  • Internet access.

Install and Test IIS

In this Tech Guide, we will install the IIS web server and confirm that the default IIS site.

Step 1.1: Add IIS to the Windows Installation

Use the Windows Search box and enter: optional features.
Then, on the dialog click More Windows Features as shown in Figure 1.



Figure 1.

The Windows Features dialog opens.
Expand the Internet Information Services list and check the boxes shown in Figure 2. below.



Figure 2.

When finished you should have the following items checked:

  • Internet Information Services
  • Web Management Tools
  • IIS Management Console
  • World Wide Web Services
  • Common HTTP Features
  • Default Document
  • HTTP Errors
  • Static Content
  • Security
  • Request Filtering

Click Ok and the features are installed.



Figure 3.


Figure 4.

Step 1.2: Test IIS

After the feature installation completes, open a browser and enter the following in the URL address bar: localhost and press Enter.



Figure 5.

If the IIS page appears as shown above, then the web server is running correctly.

Final Note:
  • IIS is working when http://localhost shows the IIS site runs successfully.
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