How to install a VFP 9 Application on Windows Server 2012 - windows-server-2012

I'm trying to install a Visual Fox Pro 9 application on a Windows Server 2012 server running on Amamzon EC2. I'm not sure exactly how to achieve this. Can someone give me specifics? The application is meant to be used by several users running windows 7 or 8.1.

Although VFP can be written to act as a COM server (exe or dll), typically the applications are written as stand-alone executable files and would be run on a user's local machine, just have the actual data common on the server that the application will point to during execution. There are a few basic files you need for VFP to run including VFP9.exe, VFP9R.ENU, VFP9R.dll (others if different language set).
That said, can you clarify what you are doing with the VFP 9 app? Such as do you have a web-service using IIS / ISAPI or other web-based tools that the VFP is acting to serve up web pages

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IIS Express vs Default IIS that comes with Windows 7

I am new to the world of IIS and I wanted to know the following...
I have heard about IIS Express. I run Windows 7 Ultimate and have installed the IIS that comes packaged with Windows 7.
As a developer, is there any major benefit for me if I install IIS Express over the default IIS that comes with Windows 7 for .Net Web projects?
Here are the differences from http://www.mywindowsclub.com/resources/3302-Key-differences-between-IIS-IIS-Developer.aspx.
If you already have IIS installed - its a better product. IIS express would only be used by people who don't have access to IIS or want something that is lighter than IIS but more like IIS than Cassini.
Integrated with OS
IIS 7 ships with the operating system and is tightly integrated to Windows.
IIS developer express is a separate downloadable tool
Targetted users
IIS 7 is for both developers as well as for production purposes.
IIS developer express can be used only for development purposes and not for production.
Supported Windows editions
IIS 7 will work only on Windows Vista and newer editions of Windows. In case of server OS, IIS 7 will work only on Windows 2008.
IIS developer edition will work even on older version - starting from Windows XP and newer.
Process model and activation
In IIS 7, the worker thread is automatically launched and managed by Windows Process Activation Service.
In case of IIS Express, user has to handle this.
FTP support
IIS developer express does not support FTP while IIS 7 supports it.
WCF support
IIS Developer express supports only WCF over HTTP.
IIS 7 supports WCF including over TCP, Named Pipes, and MSMQ.
Multi developer support
IIS 7 is a single user application.
IIS Developer express supports multi developer environment. Configuration files, settings, and Web content are maintained on a per-user basis.
Visual Studio integration
All editions and versions of Visual Studio have built-in support for IIS 7.
Only VS 2010 and future versions will have built-in support for IIS developer express.
Runtime extensions
IIS developer has support for URL Rewrite and FastCGI.
Webmatrix offers support for SEO, database management and Web Deployment. Other extensions that are offered with IIS are not yet tested with IIS Developer express.
Management Tools
IIS 7 is managed using the IIS Manager.
IIS Developer express can be managed using Webmatrix. Also, the express edition has support through system tray.
Port used by IIS
The default website comes with IIS 7 listens to port 80.
The default website part of IIS developer express listens to port 8080 to avoid conflicts with IIS 7 when they are running side by side.
From Scott Gu's post on IIS Express:
Why Not IIS
The downside with using the IIS option today, though, is that some
companies don’t allow full web-servers to be installed on developer
machines. IIS also requires administrator account access to setup and
debug projects. Different versions of Windows also support different
versions of IIS. For example, if you are running on Windows XP you
have to use the IIS 5.1 web-server that comes with it – which doesn’t
support all the new features of IIS 7.x. Configuring a web project
within VS to use IIS also requires some extra installation and
configuration steps.
Why IIS Express
It’s lightweight and easy to install (less than 10Mb download and a
super quick install) It does not require an administrator account to
run/debug applications from Visual Studio It enables a full web-server
feature set – including SSL, URL Rewrite, Media Support, and all other
IIS 7.x modules It supports and enables the same extensibility model
and web.config file settings that IIS 7.x support It can be installed
side-by-side with the full IIS web server as well as the ASP.NET
Development Server (they do not conflict at all) It works on Windows
XP and higher operating systems – giving you a full IIS 7.x developer
feature-set on all OS platforms IIS Express (like the ASP.NET
Development Server) can be quickly launched to run a site from a
directory on disk. It does not require any registration/configuration
steps. This makes it really easy to launch and run for development
scenarios.
After a couple of hours i found one significant reason to use Express over Local IIS : "Edit and Continue" does not work on local IIS.

SharePoint Development on Windows 7

I am about to install SharePoint Foundation for development purposes on my Windows 7 x64.
I will be using Visual Studio 2010.
Beside other things, MS site says:
If you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista for your development environment, you should have access to a test environment that has the same operating system installed as your production environment.
I am not sure what does it exactly mean by "you should have access to test environment"?
Will I be able to compile, run debug and test web parts and other stuff?
Are there any significant limitations for Win 7 and SP Foundation for development?
Since SharePoint production OS should be win2008+ by saying "the same operating system" they mean win2008+, neither win7 or Vista should be used as testing servers. This passage means that there should be another server that will be win 2008 and will host SharePoint and this server should be the one you should test your solutions on.
p.s. yes. there are some low level differences between sharepoint hosted on win7 and win 2088. but you will be able to do all the stuff you want on win 7 too.

Is there a way to install and run a local server on my Windows XP Home laptop?

I'm looking to set up a local server on my laptop which is running Windows XP Home Edition. I've noticed that it is impossible to install IIS on the Home Edition, but is there a way around this? Is there other software that I can install to run a server?
the purpose behind this is to mess around and play with ASP to create dynamic websites and my only computer I own has Home Edition.
Also, would running a server on my 5 year old laptop with 2GB of RAM be a good idea?
Windows XP Home Edition does not come with IIS (only Professional). There are workarounds available, but Home Edition was not designed for this. Visual Studio (full and express) come with Cassini, which is a version of IIS you can use for testing/development.
What is your desired result?
You can always install Apache. It should work fine on your HW.
This is what I use: http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/
The X1 version is totally free and works great. You can then add PHP as needed (or not)
Yes there are ways like http://www.15seconds.com/issue/020118.htm
If you are developing using Visual Studio 2005, 8 , 10 you don't need IIS.
The hardware should be fine as you will be the only user accessing the website :)
Download Ultidev Cassini and be happy...Ez to configure and use in both localhost and local network.

From PHP (LAMP) to Classic ASP, how to setup a dev environment

I'm jumping into updating a Classic ASP web app coming from a PHP background and am trying to get my bearings. I'm used to just installing something like MAMP, messing the httpd.conf a bit and getting on my way.
Ideally, I would like to be able to edit this app completely locally on my Macbook Pro running OS X Leopard so that I'm not messing with my client's server too much. Now, if I need to I'm willing to install Windows 7 via Boot Camp or running it as a virtual machine. Of course my preference is to stay completely in OS X, but I have my doubts about that possibility. So, how should I go about this?
One thing to note is that once I'm done updating this ASP web app I will have to make changes to a VB(.NET) application as well, so I'd like to have to change my virtual workspace as little as possible when that time comes around.
As you say, you will need to install Windows via Boot Camp or VM (your choice).
Once in Windows, you can install Visual Studio 2010 (Express free), where you can edit your ASP Classic files, and you will have it already installed when you need to do VB.net
Do not forget to install IIS when you install Windows (you will need it to run ASP Classic)

Development machine IIS version vs deployment IIS version

My development machine is running Windows XP SP2 (and IIS 5.1 by implication).
Until recently our deployment environment was based around Windows Server 2003 (and therefore IIS 6.0).
We are about to move to Windows Server 2008 (and therefore IIS 7.0) for a new project.
Our projects use ASP.NET MVC and WCF Services.
Are there any key reasons for us to upgrade our development machines to run Windows Server 2008 (or possibly Vista, since this also comes with IIS 7.0)?
I would say it's in your best interest to upgrade your development machines to emulate as much of the production environment as possible within your means and resources. Otherwise you may fall into traps you're completely unaware of just by deploying an application from your development machine to the server's environment, which may pertain to differing versions of IIS, the version of .NET framework each machine is running, or just the way the code is compiled or executed at runtime.
Especially since IIS 7 has been vastly upgraded since IIS 5.1, why shouldn't you work closer with it's current functionality while developing before you missing out on some great opportunities? To really know what to expect from an application in production, develop it under the same circumstances.
Edit/Added: This link may help you see at least one significant example of how differing versions can affect your project.
I would recommend that you develop against the same major build as you intend to deploy on. That said, this leaves you with a few options. First, you could build against your local IIS installation (as it appears you currently do). That means that all of your boxes should likely be upgraded to Windows Vista or Windows 2008 Server (or Windows 7 as it is running IIS 7.5). Your second option is to deploy to a remote machine. It is entirely possible to deploy your application to a remote test machine running IIS 7 and remotely debug as well. The problem is that if you have more than one developer working on the remote site, it becomes problematic. IIS can handle the remote debugging on different webs for different developers, but depending on your architecture and configuration, you may still be sharing resources between instances of test web applications.You could occasionally deadlock each other. The only benefit is that you don't have to buy licenses for all of your machines (and potentially upgrade hardware to support the OS upgrade). However, I think that would be short-sighted. The loss of developer productivity wouldn't be worth it, IMHO.
There are major changes between IIS 5.1 and IIS 7.x. The changes to the architecture, such as the integrated pipeline, can result in drastically different behavior and compatibility issues. I think you will find that IIS 7 far more developer-friendly. The introduction of things such as failed request tracing, extended logging, and enhanced error pages alone make it much easier to track down errors in your application. In that regard, the upgrade is well worth it.

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