No matter if you want to use ASP just to learn web-programming, or you want to create a major dynamic web-site, you must use a web-server that supports the ASP technology. There are two approaches to this. Either you choose to install Microsoft's Personal Web Server (PWS) or Internet Information Services (IIS) on your own PC, or you will have to find a web-hosting company running IIS which will host your web-site. If you're just looking to check out what ASP is all about, forget about the web-hosting company. Installing PWS or IIS on your computer is not such a big deal, and you don't have to be a highly qualified programmer to do this, some basic computer skills will do just fine.

First of all, you should know that there are different installation methods according to your Windows version. Even if you can install PWS on Windows 95, this operating system is really old and unstable, so you should forget about it. You should have at least Windows 98 if you want to use ASP, but Windows 2000 is highly recommended.

To run ASP on Windows 98, you have to install PWS from the Windows 98 CD. Explore the CD, and you will find the PWS in the Add-ons folder. Run setup.exe, and after the installation is done, you will find a folder called "Inetpub" on your hard-drive. Inside, there is another folder called "wwwroot", which holds all the files of your local web-server. Give it a try. Copy a HTML file in "wwwroot", and then open your web-browser and type in the address: "http://localhost/my_file.html". Don't forget to actually replace "my_file.html" with the name of your HTML file you copied. The same thing you must do when you want to use an ASP page.

To install ASP on Windows NT, you will have to download "Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack from Microsoft", because PWS is not included in Windows NT. This is not the case for Windows 2000. Click on Start, and select Settings, then Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs, then select Add/Remove Windows Components. A wizard window will show up on your screen, where you will see "Internet Information Services". Check that item, then click OK. Windows will then install IIS, and create the "Inetpub" folder. From now on, you can use IIS the same way you can use PWS on Windows 98. Check the previous section for additional details. But unlike Windows 98, you will see that the installation program has added a new icon on your taskbar - the IIS symbol. You should click the Start button that appears, so IIS can start.

Windows XP differs a little bit. You might know that there are two versions - Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. Unfortunately, IIS is only available for Windows XP Professional. To install it, take a look at the previous section - the installation process of IIS on Windows XP Professional is identical to installing IIS on Windows 2000. You can start or stop the IIS web-server by going into the Control Panel, then the Administrative Tools. You will find the "IIS Manager" item, which you can double-click to view its properties.

Regardless of the operating system that you're using, don't forget to test the web-server after you have installed it.