If you read Saving Site Configuration to File you’ll also want to know how to load that file back into your Windows Server running IIS. You can use the file to duplicate the site configuration on a development Windows server.

Use it when you move to another Windows server. You can even use it to load a new website so you don’t have to configure PHP or any other extensions or loadable modules. Keep in mind if you do want to load a new website to duplicate the configuration you’ll have to change the host headers and IP address assigned to the new site in Windows Server IIS manager.

Let’s get started.

First thing to do is start IIS manager. Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services(IIS) Manager.

Once you have it open right click Websites and select New > New website from file. A browse to box will popup and you can browse to the location you saved the site configuration to.

Once you browse to the file click Read. In the bottom box some text will scroll and it will say successful if it imported correctly. If it didn’t it will tell you the errors. You can manually edit the xml file to correct the errors if you wish.

If you used this to create a new website with the same configuration as an existing site then right click the new website and change host headers and IP address.

Thats’ it. If you have any questions post a comment to this article. If you need one on one help visit Admin Zone Forum.