Although you can use UrlRewriter.NET without making any changes to your IIS configuration, you will have a few limitations in the sorts of friendly URLs you can use. In particular, the URL must be mapped to the ASP.NET runtime in order for UrlRewriter.NET to rewrite it. To get the full power of UrlRewriter.NET, configure IIS 5.0 to map all requests to the ASP.NET runtime.

Configuring IIS 5.0 on Windows Server XP to enable UrlRewriter.NET is easy because IIS 5.0 supports wildcard application mappings. This setting enables IIS to map all unrecognised application requests to (in our instance) the ASP.NET runtime. To enable this wildcard mapping which will enable the UrlRewriter.NET component to work, follow these simple steps on each web server where UrlRewriter.NET will be running (even you developer desktop).

  1. Open Up IIS and Navigate to the “Home Directory Tab”
  2. Select “Configuration”
  3. Click “Add” and enter “C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll” in the Executable box. For the file extension, enter “.*”. Finally, make sure that “Check that file exists” is not checked.