In IIS 6.0, you have an option to host a Web site with Web content on the same computer, or a shared location on another computer or redirect the request to a URL. If you look at IIS 7 / 7.5 management console you would wonder where all the settings are and this post will guide you through the same.

I. Directory located on the same computer

In IIS 6.0

1. Right click on Web Site (Default Web Site in our case) and click on Properties
2. Click on Home Directory tab
   
   
   

In IIS 7 / 7.5

1. Click on the Web Site (Default Web Site in our case)
2. In Action panel under Edit Site, click Basic Settings…
   
   

II. Directory located on a remote computer (shared drive)

In IIS 6.0

1. Right click on Web Site (Default Web Site in our case) and click on Properties
2. Click on Home Directory tab
   
   
   
3. Click on the Connect As… button to change the security credentials used to connect to the shared location

In IIS 7 / 7.5

1. Click on the Web Site (Default Web Site in our case)
2. In Action panel under Edit Site, click Basic Settings…
3. You don’t see any option button to select to change your resource location. You will have to directly type in the UNC path like \\machine_name\shared_folder (\\vivekkum-a\custerr in our case).
   
   
   
4. If you click on the Connect as… button and select Specific user –> Set…
   
   
   
5. You should enter domain\username if you want to configure it for a Specific domain user, else IIS will try to resolve the username with a local account and will fail with the error “The specified user name does not exist.”

The configuration change will get reflected in applicationHost.config file under system.applicationHost\sites.

Hope this helps,
Vivek Kumbhar

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