IIS 5.1 books

Question

I can't find any books on IIS 5.1. Is it close enough that I could use a book on IIS 5.0?

Answer 1

Generally, yes. IIS 5.1 was the "Windows XP" version of IIS. You'll find certain limitations due it being the desktop OS edition of IIS, but overall the vast majority of your skills with IIS 5.0 (Windows 2000) will apply.

For what it's worth, here's a chart (from WikiPedia) of the versions of IIS and which operating systems they belong

• IIS 1.0, Windows NT 3.51 available as a free add-on
• IIS 2.0, Windows NT 4.0
• IIS 3.0, Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3
• IIS 4.0, Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack
• IIS 5.0, Windows 2000
• IIS 5.1, Windows XP Professional,Windows MCE
• IIS 6.0, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• IIS 7.0, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Pre-beta)

Answer 2

You'll find information on IIS 5.1 in books like Windows XP Unleashed. There are also numerous websites that abound with information. The problem you're going to run into is that IIS 5.1 isn't really a production level IIS Server. It was released with Windows XP, and any web servers that use IIS would likely use IIS6, which comes with Windows Server 2003.