Setting up Sharepoint 2010 Development Environment on Windows 7

Technorati Tags: Sharepoint 2010,Development Environment,Windows 7

I was trying to set up a Sharepoint 2010 development environment (server not foundation) and all my web searches pointed to: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx. IMO, this was a poorly written document as it combined all the operating systems into one single document.

For each step, I had to search for Windows 7 and extremely cautious about what OS upgrades and hotfixes I put on my Windows 7 Ultimate box. So, I thought that a Windows 7 centric process captured from my installation notes might be helpful for architects and developers who may be setting up their environments.

Here are my notes from the installation that worked for me:

Step 1: Started with a Windows 7 Ultimate native boot VHD into which SQL 2008 R2 Express and VS 2010 Ultimate preinstalled. (Note: it should work with Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise versions as well. Even though I used VS 2010 Ultimate but it should work for VS 2010 Professional as well.)

Step 2: Copied Sharepoint 2010 Enterprise installation files to my hard drive directory: C:\SharepointFiles.

Step 3: Edited C:\SharepointFiles\Files\Setup\Config.xml to add the AllowWindowsClientInstall switch as shown:

<configuration>
   <!— leave the existing settings untouched -->
   <Setting Id="AllowWindowsClientInstall" Value="True"/>
<configuration>

Step 4: Installed the following pre-requisites:

Step 5: Executed the following IIS7 command as administrator after removing line breaks:

start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;
IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;
IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;
IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;
IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;
IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;
IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;
IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;
IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;
WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI;WCF-HTTP-Activation;
WCF-NonHTTP-Activation

Step 6: Executed Setup.exe and followed the process for “Standalone” server installation.

(NOTE: Installation of Sharepoint 2010 server bits on Windows 7 is not a supported configuration per the documentation. Only Sharepoint 2010 Foundation is supported and hence you are on your own if need help with the break fix of development environment.)

I hope the above saves a few minutes with your installation.

- Hanu