Microsoft’s Web Platform as one simple install (Release Candidate)

Microsoft recently announced the Web Platform Installer (Web PI)

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer is a free tool that makes it simple to download and install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 and 7.0, SQL Server 2008 Express, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1. The Web Platform Installer offers a single installer to help you obtain the software you need to build and run a complete Web solution on the Microsoft Web platform, whether you are using Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008.   In addition, the Web Platform Installer checks online to ensure the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform are downloaded.

The Web PI is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/downloads/default.aspx

Here is a presentation showing what Web PI does for you: http://www.slideshare.net/laurencooney/web-platform-installer-announcement-presentation.

In addition to the Web PI, Microsoft also is developing a Web Application Installer (Web AI) that greatly facilitates installing popular ASP.NET and PHP applications. The Web AI is currently in beta (also available at the link above).

The Microsoft Web Application Installer Beta is designed to help get you up and running with the most widely used Web Applications freely available for your Windows Server. Web AI provides support for popular ASP.Net and PHP Web applications including Graffiti, DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, OSCommerce and more. With just a few simple clicks, Web AI will check your machine for the necessary pre-requisites, download these applications from their source location in the community, walk you through basic configuration items and then install them on your computer.