Member Avatar for Taffy-Taff

Hi -
I can't believe that I have played around with different programming languages before and never heard about ASP. I have started doing some reading on it and it seems really exciting. I have a problem, however. I am using a Laptop that runs the Windows XP Home Edition operating system. However, it does not seems to be ASP-ready, so I cannot practise writing ASP scripts. Can anyone tell me how to get my computer configured so that I can do some practising?


Thanks much.
Taffy

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Short summary and practical path forward based on the thread (adds to , , and ):

Windows XP Home does not include Microsoft's IIS. For the most faithful classic‑ASP experience it’s best to run IIS inside a Windows edition that ships with it (Windows XP Professional provides IIS 5.1; IIS 6.0 is a Server 2003-era product). Third‑party servers or hosted accounts (as other members noted) will work for many simple pages but can miss IIS‑specific behavior — COM object hosting, some authentication modes and certain ISAPI interactions are areas where differences appear.

A reliable, low‑risk way to practice on an XP Home laptop is to use virtualization: install a free hypervisor, create a virtual machine, install a licensed copy of a Windows edition that includes IIS, enable IIS via the Add/Remove Windows Components control panel, and place .asp files in the server web root (usually C:\Inetpub\wwwroot). This keeps the host untouched, avoids unsupported “hacks,” and preserves a proper IIS environment for testing. Note that the guest Windows installation still needs a valid license.

Quick test and checklist (copy into a file named test.asp in the web root):

<%
Response.Write "Hello, classic ASP! The time is " & Now()
%>

Then browse to in the VM. If it fails, check: ASP scripting is enabled in IIS; .asp is mapped to the ASP engine (asp.dll); firewall/port 80 is open in the guest; file permissions allow the IIS user to read the file; Event Viewer or IIS logs for errors; COM objects must be registered inside the guest if used.

Final notes: lightweight servers (reported by ) and free hosts (mentioned earlier) are fine for quick experiments; virtualization gives the closest parity with production IIS and is the safest route on XP Home.

Recommended Answers

All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for Lafinboy

Win XP Home Edition doesn't ship with a web server, so you will need to instal one to start playing around with asp. By all acounts, IIS (M$ web server) doesn't play with XP Home Edition, but there is a viable (and free!) alternative in APACHE. Visit the apache site do get information on and download apache.

Member Avatar for Drew

Win XP Home Edition doesn't ship with a web server, so you will need to instal one to start playing around with asp. By all acounts, IIS (M$ web server) doesn't play with XP Home Edition, but there is a viable (and free!) alternative in APACHE. Visit the apache site do get information on and download apache.

APACHE is not the same thing as IIS. If you want to truely code ASP you need Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro with IIS 6.0.

Member Avatar for PoA

You can try Abyss. It's a small webserver and supports perl, php and asp. More info http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/

Member Avatar for Drew

Still the only thing that you can fully run ASP is IIS. All th other programs work, but will not support many features of ASP like IIS.

ASP is a Microsoft langauge, trying to use something else will not work. Trust me, i have been using it for years and have tryed just about everything.

Member Avatar for afgmail

I agree, if you want to fully use the capabilities of ASP you should go for IIS. The way I see it is that is easier for you to upgrade XP Home to Professional instead of installing another web server on Home at the moment.
HTH :p

Member Avatar for Drew

BTW those "hacks" for XP Home to get IIS to work don't work. Ive tryed on multiple computers without success.

All it did was mess it up if you tryed to upgrade to XP Pro (meaning that if you tryed the hack and did a upgrade, IIS would not work. Have to reinstall XP completly).

Member Avatar for Aykon

The best option I can tell you is to try a free ASP host. I have found that the developer site they offer a certain number of free ASP accounts and even allow up to three ODBC's.

Member Avatar for dexterz

IIS/PWS is on the Win 2000 CD. You just have to install it. If you have the Win2K CD, load it your laptop and install the IIS / PWS. If you don't have it, ask a copy w/ your friends. I just installed IIS in my cousin's Dell notebook.

Dexter

Member Avatar for VSBrown

You can try Abyss. It's a small webserver and supports perl, php and asp. More info http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/

I have one of my PC's setup for testing that has Abyss and the ASP Component for Abyss installed. So far I have been using it for the last year and have yet to experience any problems running any ASP applications on it.

I recommend Abyss as an alternative to IIS. :D

Member Avatar for method

I have one of my PC's setup for testing that has Abyss and the ASP Component for Abyss installed. So far I have been using it for the last year and have yet to experience any problems running any ASP applications on it.

I recommend Abyss as an alternative to IIS. :D

does the asp support needs any licence to purchase ? does it has any limitaiton ?

Member Avatar for VSBrown

does the asp support needs any licence to purchase ? does it has any limitaiton ?

You will only need a license for the actual Abyss Server. As for ASP limitations, I have tried various things on my Abyss Server and have had zero problems so far.

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