After stumbling onto Pjblog, I wanted to run it locally. Renting hosting was not realistic for a beginner, and free hosting either came with posting requirements or was so unstable that files uploaded one day could vanish the next. So I tried to build a server environment on my own machine. The problem was Vista Home Basic: no matter what I tried, IIS would not install. A suggestion to use a virtual machine gave me a way around it.
What I used
- Virtual PC 2007, specifically the x32 build
- A Windows XP image
- An IIS 5.1 installation package
I chose XP because it can run IIS and also handle some software that Vista refuses to run, so it solves two problems at once.
Install Virtual PC 2007
The installation is mostly a matter of clicking Next. The program itself is in English and does not offer a Chinese interface option. If you want the Chinese interface, install the Chinese language pack, then open File > Options > Language, choose Chinese (Simplified) from the drop-down menu, and restart Virtual PC 2007.
Create the XP virtual machine
Open Virtual PC 2007 and go to New > Next > Create a virtual machine. Choose a storage path and a name for the virtual machine, then select XP as the operating system. Use the recommended memory size, create a new virtual hard disk, and finish the wizard. I used the recommended settings to avoid extra trouble; if you want, you can adjust the memory and disk size yourself.
Install IIS inside XP
Open Virtual PC 2007 and double-click the Windows XP entry to start the virtual machine. Inside XP, go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Add or Remove Windows Components > Internet Information Services. Click Next. When setup says it cannot find a file, point the file location to the IIS 5.1 package you downloaded, then finish the installation.
Installing IIS is not enough by itself. You also need to adjust permissions. Open C:/Windows, where C is the system drive, and find the temp folder. Right-click it, choose Properties, and open the Security tab. If the Security tab is missing, go to Tools > Folder Options > View and clear the check mark in front of Use simple file sharing (Recommended), then click OK.
Click Add, type E in the object name field, click Check Names, and confirm. For the Everyone entry, select Full Control. Since this is a local test environment rather than a public server, opening up the IIS permissions this way should not cause any problems. Then open C:/Inetpub/ and apply the same permission changes to the wwwroot folder.
Put Pjblog in place
Copy all the Pjblog files into wwwroot. Open a browser and go to http://localhost. If the Pjblog page appears, the local setup is ready to use.