“Web platform installer” install one get all.
In my developer pc I have every thing installed and I didn’t know, what its like to run the Microsoft web platform installer, since it doesn’t make sense uninstalling every thing and restart again from beginning. To get the total experience about the “install one and get all thing”, I used a virtual pc to test what it is and how it works.
When I run the installer for the first time it asked me that .net framework 2.0 is not installed and you got to install the .net 2.0 first. It redirected me to a download link from where the framework need to install. After the installation of .net framework successfully done I again clicked on the web platform installer 2.0 and it started the wizard. The first page of the wizard look like the bellow figure.
After the initial splash screen gone, the wizard provided me with lot of options to configure and customize the installation. In first tab, which is “what’s new section”, it got few options to incorporate latest extensions for example ASP.NET MVC 1.0 and other latest improvements.
If you click on the web platform installer you will get the actual necessary stuff that must be installed in a web application development environment. It ask for web server, latest framework, database, and other tools. In case of IIS web server the installer lunch the IIS setup and ask the user for windows installation disk.
The surprise package is that it ask for a wide range of application to be installed along with the web platform installer. It have options to include almost all necessary application to be installed. It got Blog,CMD, etc.
After all options are selected a final revision window is displayed informing the user what will be installed and what is the size of the component. Click accept will begin the journey and will end at installing all things that we have selected.
Its good for starter developer. They don’t need to know any thing, what is free and easy to learn, can be installed easily by “Microsoft Web Platform Installer”, well-done and cheers!.