Personal Web Server Version 4.0
Release Notes

Welcome to Microsoft® Personal Web Server (PWS) 4.0. Please refer to these release notes to obtain the most up-to-date information about installation, documentation, support, and other known issues.

Installing PWS 4.0
Product Documentation
Other Known Problems and Limitations
Providing Feedback
Microsoft Technical Support

Installing Personal Web Server Version 4.0

• Windows NT 4.0 and Service Pack 3 The Windows NT® Server service must be installed and running.
• Removal of Alpha, Beta 1, or Beta 2 software If you have PWS version 4.0 Alpha or PWS version 4.0 (Beta 1 or Beta 2), be sure to uninstall that release (before installing the current release). To do this, first start the Setup program from the compact disc containing the earlier release or, in Windows NT, click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Personal Web Server (Common), and then click Personal Web Server Setup. Click Next, then click Remove All.

ODBC installation errors will occur during setup if there are any other applications or system services running that use the existing ODBC on the system. If any ODBC errors occur, please stop all desktop and system service applications, and run Setup again.

Notes

The Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack only can be installed on Windows NT Server 4.0 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

The Personal Web Server for Windows 95 contained in the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack installs on both Windows 95 and Beta 3 of Windows 98.

The Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack cannot be installed on any version of Windows NT 5.0.

Other Installation Considerations

Reinstalling Windows NT Service Pack 3

If you reinstall Windows NT Service Pack 3 for any reason after PWS 4.0 is installed, do not overwrite the newer files that were installed by PWS 4.0.

Uninstalling the Product

To uninstall the product, rerun the Setup program for this release. There are several ways to access the Setup program. You can use the compact disc, or click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows NT Option Pack 4.0, and then click Windows NT Option Pack 4.0 Setup. Follow the instructions in the dialog boxes and, when prompted, click the Add/Remove button to uninstall the software.

Installation Errors and Problems

• Errors that occur during unattended setup will be written to the Windows NT registry. Navigate to the following registry path for error information:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
   Software
    \Microsoft
     \Windows
      \Setup
       \OCmanager
        \Errors

Upgrading Considerations

• If you are upgrading from a previous version of PWS and you have trouble viewing Default.asp, then you probably have an older version of this file. In order to install the newer PWS 4.0 version of this file, you must manually remove the older version of Default.asp. The default location is C:\InetPub\Wwwroot.
• You cannot use Internet Service Manager for Peer Web Server 3.0 to configure administrative properties for Personal Web Server 4.0.

Setup.exe is not code signed

When running Setup from the PWS CD from the setup Web page, Internet Explorer will display an error message indicating that Setup.exe has not been code signed. Setup.exe is a 16-bit file and 16-bit file formats cannot be code signed.

Product Documentation

All documentation for the product is available online. You can access the Help topics by clicking Start and pointing to the program group where the product is installed, or by using the Help menu of the administration tool. Context-sensitive help is also available by clicking the Help button on a property sheet or dialog box.

Using the Documentation

Please observe the following guidelines when using the online documentation:

• The WWW service must be installed and the server must be running in order to view the documentation (with the exception of release notes and troubleshooting files). If the Web site is stopped, when you click Product Documentation you will get a message that "A connection with the server could not be established." If you get this error, start Internet Service Manager and check the status of the Web site; if the site is stopped, then start the service.
• In Internet Explorer 4.01 users must enable the Bypass proxy server for local (Intranet) addresses option on the Connection property sheet in order to view local files, such as the product documentation.
• If you click the print icon in the Option Pack product documentation Contents frame and select the option Print everything contained in the current heading, you may experience a temporary performance degradation on the server if the selected section contains a large number of topics.

Pages printed by using the Contents print icon will not include graphics or linked documents. Also, the Contents print icon does not work in conjunction with the sample scripts and programs found in the Developer Samples section of the PWS documentation. If you select a topic in the Developer Samples section and click the Contents print icon, you will receive an error message indicating that the file cannot be found.

• If you install Internet Connection Services for Microsoft Remote Access Service, Microsoft Script Debugger, Microsoft Windows Scripting Host, or Microsoft Message Queue Server (Client), you must also install the Internet Service Manager component and the PWS Advanced Administrator's documentation of PWS. To read documentation on any of these components, run the Internet Service Manager, select Internet Information Server, and then click Help on Internet Information Server from the Help menu."
• In order to view the PWS documentation remotely, please use the following URL: http://<servername>/iisHelp/ where <servername> is the name of the server running PWS.

Other Known Problems and Limitations

The following list contains known problems and limitations in this release:

Administration
Internet Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI)
Active Server Pages
Server Security
Exploration Air Sample Site Issues
General

Administration

• In previous versions of PWS, you could stop the entire Web service by typing at the command line net stop w3svc. This would terminate all of the Web services on the computer, and shut down the Inetinfo.exe process. As a result of the new multiple Web site architecture, there is another service, Iisadmin, that keeps running, even when W3SVC is shut down. The same is true for starting and stopping services from Control Panel. If you truly want to unload the Inetinfo.exe process, and make sure that all of the extensions are unloaded properly, you should now type net stop iisadmin, rather than net stop w3svc. Typing net start w3svc or net start msftpsvc automatically starts Iisadmin.
• When you start the Web server it migrates all new virtual roots in the registry to the metabase ("new" meaning, not already in the metabase). The server then deletes all registry virtual roots and mirrors the virtual roots from the metabase to those of the registry. Any change to metabase virtual roots re-mirrors the virtual roots to the registry, deleting any registry entries changed or added since the original installation.
• The PStore service must be running in order to run PWS.
• If you have a .dll file with special dependencies that require these files to be loaded before other Web server processes, you can create a registry-defined list of those .dll files that are to be preloaded into Inetinfo.exe program before any other Web server services start up.

To preload .dll files, create a new registry key called PreloadDlls at the following registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
 SYSTEM
  \CurrentControlSet
   \Services
    \Inetinfo
     \Parameters

Set this entry as type multi-sz, with data consisting of the names of the .dll files that you want to preload (separated by carriage returns). If the files reside in the same path, you can type just the name of the .dll file. If the .dll file resides in another directory, type file name and its full path.

• When you attempt to backup Web site configuration information you will be prompted to type in a comment phrase before saving the configuration information. However, you cannot save this information if your comment includes non-alphanumeric characters, including nonprintable characters, or any of the following characters:

/ \ \ * . ? \ "& ! @ # $ % ^ ( ) = + | ` ~ 

• You cannot use Internet Service Manager to remotely administer a computer running IIS 4.0 Beta 3.0 from a computer running the final release of IIS 4.0. Likewise, you cannot administer a computer running IIS 4.0 final release from one running IIS 4.0 Beta 3.0. This applies to all other applications using the AdminBase interface. The workaround is to put the released version of the file Admwprox.dll on all machines and then reboot.

Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI)

• The configuration metabase property InProcessIsapiApps (MD_IN_PROCESS_ISAPI_APPS) now permits entries of .dll names without qualifying paths. An entry without a qualifying path will match any ISAPI request that contains the .dll name regardless of the physical path specified in the request. For example, the following would be a valid list for the property: "D:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv\Ssinc.dll" "D:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv\Httpodbc.dll" "Author.dll" "Shtml.dll" "Admin.dll".
• When debugging ISAPI applications, ISAPI filters, server components, or other code you are writing to run on top of PWS, it may be useful to run PWS as a process. Information about configuring PWS 4.0 to run as a process is outlined in the product documentation. Additional instructions and two .reg files that automate the process of switching PWS to run as a service or a process have been added to the PWS 4.0 SDK.

To install the SDK

1. In PWS Setup dialog box, select Personal Web Server then click Show Subcomponents.
2. Select Documentation, click Show Subcomponents, then click SDK.
3. Click OK.

You can find the instructions in Inetpub\Iissamples\Sdk\Components\IIS_as_process.txt. For more information, the topic "Establishing a Debugging Environment" in the Advanced Web Application Development section of the Internet Information Server documentation describes how to set up an environment for debugging ISAPI extensions.

• The metabase identifier MD_ALLOW_PATH_INFO_FOR_SCRIPT_MAPPINGS is not documented in the Metabase Identifier Reference in the Programmer's Reference. The documentation for the corresponding automation metabase property, AllowPathInfoForScriptMappings, in the Administration Property Reference also applies to MD_ALLOW_PATH_INFO_FOR_SCRIPT_MAPPINGS. The user type is IIS_MD_UT_SERVER.
• In the Metabase Identifier Reference, which is part of Programmer's Reference documentation for the metabase identifier MD_SCRIPT_MAPS, the constant MD_SCRIPTMAPFLAG_SCRIPT is incorrectly identified as MD_SCRIPTMAPFLAG_SCRIPT_ENGINE.
• The two configuration metabase properties, AppAllowDebugging and AppAllowClientDebug, can be set at the IIsWebDirectory key in addition to the other keys specified in the documentation.

Active Server Pages

• Properties set for the ASP Request, Response, and Server objects are valid only during the processing of a request. For example, if you set a property in the Global.asa, such as Response.Buffer = True, the property will apply only to a single request and not to all requests.
• If you stop the WWW service from Internet Service Manager while debugging a script, then Internet Service Manager will not function until you resume execution of the script you are debugging. Normally, if you stop the Web service using Control Panel or the net stop command, scripts being debugged with Microsoft Script Debugger are terminated. However, if you stop a Web site from Internet Service Manager, then the site will stop operation if you are currently debugging scripts that are running on the server you are stopping. If you go to the Microsoft Script Debugger and select Stop Debugging for scripts that you are debugging, then Internet Service Manager will resume operation.
• There are currently known problems with using PerlScript with ASP. If you are running PerlScript from ActiveWare, contact ActiveWare for a new PerlScript engine.
• There is a mistake in the ASP documentation which states that the MapPath method does not support relative path syntax, such as ./path or ../path. The MapPath method will support relative path syntax only if the EnableParentPaths metabase property is enabled. When the EnableParentPaths property is not enabled, using the MapPath method with a relative path results in an error.
• When setting Windows NT permissions for a directory for which you intend to use use anonymous or Windows NT Challenge/Response authentication, you must assign the anonymous user account (IUSR_computername) or the application owner account (IWAM_computername) Read permissions if the directory contains an out-of-process application and a Global.asa. Failure to set the Read permission may result in ASP ignoring the Global.asa file.

Similarly, for in-process applications contained in directories stored on a network drive, you must make sure that the anonymous user account has Windows NT Read permissions.

• In Microsoft® Visual Basic or VBScript, if you call GetObject() to instantiate an IIS Admin Object, and GetObject fails, the returned error code is changed in ole32 from MkParseDisplayName() to a MK_E_SYNTAX error.
• The Scripter's Reference documentation enumerates properties in the MyInfo object and states that Personal Web Server initializes these properties. Although this information is valid for a Macintosh installation of Personal Web Server on the Macintosh computer, this information is may not be valid for a Windows NT installation of Personal Web Server. None of the properties enumerated in the Scripter's Reference documentation exist when MyInfo is first instantiated. Rather, these properties are created during execution by means of an assignment statement. This means that if a property does not exist, querying for its value will return an empty string and any attempt to use the property in an expression will return an error.
• If you create or use components developed in Microsoft® Visual Basic® 5.0 (Enterprise or Professional Editions) for use with ASP, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade to Visual Studio™ 97 Service Pack 2, both for your development and server computers.

You can download the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2 at http://www.microsoft.com/vstudio/sp/.

• The Scripting.Dictionary object is erroneously marked as Both-threaded. It should be marked as Apartment-threaded. To change this, use the Registry Editor to open the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\
  CLSID
   \{EE09B103-97E0-11CF-978F-00A02463E06F}
    \InprocServer32


Change the named value for ThreadingModel to Apartment. If you use the Dictionary object at Application scope without making this change, corruption of data may occur.

Server Security

• Although Internet Service Manager will allow you to enable password synchronization for a non-local anonymous user account, this is not a supported configuration, and may cause all access to your Web or FTP server to be denied. Password synchronization should only be used with anonymous user accounts defined on the local computer. If your Web site relies on the anonymous user being able to access network resources, you cannot use the anonymous authentication password synchronization feature and you must specify a valid password for the anonymous user.

Exploration Air Sample Site Issues

• If you have not installed the Remote Data Service included with Microsoft Data Access Components 1.5, then you will need to edit the Prefs.txt file (located in Inetpub\IISSamples\ExAir\Benefits\Prefs.txt, by default) to disable the Remote Data Service feature, which is used in the Benefits application of the Exploration Air. Specifically, set the RDSAvailable change from True to False.
• When using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) feature for file uploading, the Posting Acceptor component will correctly upload a file onto your Web server; however, the redirect to Verify.asp will fail. This will have no functional effect on the Posting Acceptor Component.
• The Exploration Air sample site's Microsoft SQL Server database is configured to use the default user ID (UID) and password (that is, UID=sa and no password.) Other SQL configurations will not work.
• The file upload component found in the Business Partners Only link will not work if the directory for the file upload is not properly configured. Following is a procedure you can use to to configure your system for file upload:
1. In the IISSamples\ExAir\BusinessPartners directory, create a subdirectory called Upload.
2. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, point to Personal Web Server, and then click Internet Service Manager.
3. In the left pane of Internet Service Manger, click Internet Information Server folder, then double-click your icon named as your server.
4. Double-click Default Web Site, then navigate to the IISSamples/ExAir/Business Partners/Upload virtual directory.
5. Right-click Upload, and select Properties. In the Directory property sheet, under Access Permissions, select Write.
6. Under Permissions in Application Settings, select None. These settings will allow the Posting Acceptor component to work properly.
7. Close the Internet Service Manager and retry file uploading.

General

• In addition to versioning your Web server configuration, the backup and restore feature can be used to restore a previous PWS configuration when a problem occurs that can be fixed by uninstalling and then re-installing PWS. However, this process will not work when a complete re-installation of the operating system is required. If your computer encounters a problem that requires you to reinstall the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, use the following procedure to restore a previous configuration:
1. In left pane of Internet Service Manager, click the Internet Information Server folder, then select then icon with the name of your computer.
2. From the Internet Service Manager tool bar, click Action, then select Backup/Restore Configuration.
3. In the Configuration Backup/Restore dialog box, click Create Backup.
4. In the Configuration Backup Name dialog box, type a name for the backup file. By default, the backup file will be stored in the C:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv\Metaback directory. Alternatively, the backup file may be stored in the directory specified in the following registry entry (that is, if you have created this entry):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
 SOFTWARE
  \Microsoft
   \InetStp
    \MetaBackup


Select the value BackupPath, which contains the name of the backup file you created with Internet Service Manager.

5. Copy the file to a location outside of the Inetsrv subdirectory. Backup files in the Metaback subdirectory are deleted during the uninstall.
6. Uninstall and then re-install the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack.
7. Copy the backup file to the Metaback subdirectory (C:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv\Metaback\ , by default.)
8. In the Configuration Backup Name dialog box, select the backup file you created, and then click Restore. Although the restoration may fail, a portion of your backed up configuration will be restored.
9. At a command-prompt type, cscript.exe C:\Winnt\System32\Inetsrv\Adminsamples\Adsutil.vbs enum w3svc. This command will list several PWS Web service settings. From the settings listed find the WamUserName and WAMUserPass evalues. These values represent the the user ID and password that the Windows Application Manager (WAM) uses to start out–of–process applications. During re-installation, the password is reset in the User Manager.

   Note   To use the Adsutil.vbs utility you must have installed the Windows Scripting Host as part of the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack installation.

10. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools and click User Manager. Double-click the IWAM_<computername> user account. Type the password retrieved from the previous step.
11. Click OK.
12. In the Configuration Backup Name dialog box, select the backup file you created, and then click Restore. Your configuration should now be fully restored.

Note   If you change the identity of your out-of-process applications, then those applications will revert back to the previous IWAM user name.

• In the home page wizard of Personal Web Manager, the stylesheet graphics associated with the home page templates are best viewed with Internet Explorer 4.0. Subtle differences between the way the home page template appears in IE 3.0 and Netscape are normal.

Internet Explorer versions 3.0 and 4.0 ignore line–break characters in text fields. To break a line in a text field entry, add the <BR> HTML tag to the end of each line.

• For security reasons, the publishing wizard of Personal Web Manager will not publish a file that resides on a network drive. This means that you can only publish files from your local drive.
• Uninstalling Microsoft SNA Server 3.08 removes the Microsoft ODBC Administrator file (Odbcad32.exe). However, you can manually access the functionality achieved by this doing the following:
  1. From the Start menu, point to Settings, then click Control Panel.
  2. Double click the ODBC icon. With the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box, you can create, edit, and view ODBC data sources, and carry out other ODBC administrative tasks.
• In the PWS documentation, the Monitoring Counters for Web Sites topic refers to the Trace Requests/sec counter. This counter is not available, although the Total Trace Requests counter is available.
• Running Personal Web Server 4.0 on a computer with a 486 processor slower than 50 MHz and 16 megabytes or less of RAM increases the likelihood that the script engines degrade into a memory heap packing mode, meaning that the server will be unable to accept new connections while in this mode. The heap packing process may take 20 to 30 minutes (depending on the speed of the microprocessor).
• You cannot execute the ADSI Configuration Restore function from within a Web Server application (like Active Server Pages or CGI applications). Executing Configuration Restore from a Web Server application will cause the server to stop responding.

Providing Feedback

Peer-to-peer newsgroups are available to help you interact with other users of our products, including Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). You can use any newsreader software to access these newsgroups. Regardless of the newsreader or news client you are using, you may need to configure it to read the newsgroups. When prompted for News Server, specify msnews.microsoft.com. You do not need to enter an account name or password. Before posting to the newsgroups, please review the Microsoft Newsgroup Rules of Conduct. For more information about Microsoft newsgroups please see http://www.microsoft.com/support/news/ and choose Personal Web Server.

Newsgroups supporting the Windows NT Option Pack 4.0 will become available in the near future. You should refresh your newsgroup subscriptions often in order to find the latest newsgroup for this product.

Microsoft Technical Support

If you have a technical question about Microsoft® Personal Web Server, use this online documentation or consult Help by clicking the Help button during a procedure. If you still have a question, Microsoft offers technical support and services ranging from self-help tools to direct assistance with a Microsoft Technical Support Engineer.

Note   The services and prices listed here are available in the United States and Canada only (see Technical Support Worldwide below).

Self-Help Tools to Find Answers Yourself

Microsoft Technical Support Online: This innovative site uses the cutting-edge technology of Microsoft to help you access the most relevant technical information and resources to answer your support questions. Use the Troubleshooting Wizards to easily diagnose and answer technical questions. Or select technical articles, programming aids, or commonly asked questions from the Microsoft Knowledge Base of over 75,000 articles. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/support/ today and see how easy it is to find the answers you need.

Direct Assistance with a Microsoft Technical Support Engineer

Standard No-Charge Support: Support for Personal Web Server is provided as part of the support available for Windows NT Workstation. Specifically:

A total of two (2) no-charge incidents for either Personal Web Server or Windows NT Workstation

To receive Standard No-Charge Support in English, in the U.S., please call (425) 635-7018 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pacific time, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. In Canada, for support in French, please call (905) 568-4494, 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Eastern time, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

Note   Toll-charges may apply.

*If your Microsoft product was pre-installed or distributed with your personal computer, the personal computer manufacturer is responsible for providing your product support. For support, contact the manufacturer or source from which you obtained your Microsoft product.

Pay-Per-Incident Support: If you require support after normal business hours, or if you have used your two incidents of Standard No-Charge Support, as described above, you can purchase Pay-Per-Incident Support. In the U.S. and Canada, for a fee of $95US per incident, please call (800) 936-5900, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. In the U.S. only, you can also call (900) 555-2110.

Note   Support fees for the (800)# calls will be billed to your VISA, MasterCard, or American Express credit card. Support fees for the (900)# calls will appear on your telephone bill.

Priority Annual Support: If you anticipate a high volume of support incidents, or need priority access to Microsoft Technical Support Engineers, you can purchase a Priority Annual Comprehensive Account. In the U.S. and Canada, for more information or to purchase an annual account at a cost of $1,695US per 10 incidents, call (800) 936-3500, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays. To submit an incident against an existing account, call (800) 936-4900, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays.

Submitting questions via the Internet: In the U.S. and Canada, you can also submit your Standard No-Charge, Pay-Per-Incident or Priority Annual support questions via the Internet with Web Response. For more details, go to Microsoft Technical Support Online at http://www.microsoft.com/support/.

Additional Support Options

Support Programs and Services: Microsoft Technical Support also offers professional support programs and services for medium-sized and large businesses that require more than just standard incident resolution. For more information, see the Technical Support section of the Help file, or visit Microsoft Technical Support Online at http://www.microsoft.com/support/.

Text Telephone: Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TTD) services are available for the deaf or hard-of-hearing. In the United States, using a TTY/TTD modem, dial (425) 635-4948. In Canada, using a TTY/TTD modem, dial (905) 568-9641.

Technical Support Worldwide: Support services and prices may vary outside the United States and Canada. For information on support available outside the U.S. and Canada, contact the local Microsoft subsidiary in your area. For a list of worldwide Microsoft subsidiaries, see the Technical Support section of the Help file, or visit Microsoft Technical Support Online at http://www.microsoft.com/support/.

Note   The services and prices listed here are available in the United States and Canada only. Support services may vary outside the U.S. and Canada. For more information on support in other locations, contact your local Microsoft subsidiary.
Microsoft's support services are subject to Microsoft's then-current prices, terms, and conditions, which are subject to change without notice.

Copyright Information

© 1997 Microsoft Corporation

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Neither Microsoft nor its suppliers makes any warranty, express or implied with respect to the content of these materials or the accuracy of any information contained herein, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow exclusions of implied warranties, the above limitation may not apply to you.

Neither Microsoft nor its suppliers shall have any liability for any damages whatsoever including consequential, incidental, direct, indirect, special, and lost profits. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow exclusions of implied warranties, the above limitation may not apply to you. In any event, Microsoft’s and its suppliers’ entire liability in any manner arising out of these materials, whether by tort, contract, or otherwise shall not exceed the suggested retail price of these materials.

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