Setting Up Windows Server AppFabric – order matters

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What to do if your IIS Manager has no Deploy menu item

Over the weekend I setup a new machine.  When everything was installed I opened the IIS manager and right clicked on the default website so I could deploy a package and… there was no “Deploy” menu option.  This has happened to me before so I knew what to do, but in case you ever run into this…

How I created the problem.

I installed my new machine in this order

  1. Windows 7
  2. Visual Studio 2010
  3. Windows Server AppFabric setup with the Web Platform Installer

The problem is that Visual Studio sets up the IIS Web Deployment tool but at the point when VS is installed IIS is not enabled on Windows 7.  Later when I run the Web Platform Installer to setup AppFabric it enables IIS.

To fix the problem

If you find yourself with this problem you can fix it.

  1. Download the x86 or x64 msi installer for the Web Deployment Tool
  2. Run the msi – it will offer reinstall, repair or remove options.
  3. Select remove (the other two won’t fix the problem)
  4. Run the msi again to install it
  5. Now you machine is fixed.

To avoid the problem

You can avoid the problem by installing in the following order

  1. Windows 7
  2. Windows Server AppFabric setup with the Web Platform Installer
  3. Visual Studio 2010