Allowing non-administrator users to create virtual Web sites or directories

I'm running Windows 2000 Server as a domain controller, and on workstations Windows XP Pro with IIS installed locally. There's a problem when domain users try to create a virtual Web site or directory in the IIS console. They can't see the default Web site folder, but when a domain admin logs in and tries this, he can see the default and can create a site or directory. How can I allow users without administrator rights to access IIS and create virtual Web sites or directories?
I have bad news: I'm not aware of a way to do this. This was actually a major issue for me for many years, because I was responsible for hundreds of IIS 5.0 Web servers, and our customers wanted to be able do create Web sites and virtual directories. My options were to have them place a support call and create it for them, or grant them administrator rights. I was never able to find a compromise where they had restricted privileges but could still perform those tasks.

It's basically a limitation of the IIS 5.0 design. For what it's worth, I never stopped complaining to Microsoft about this.

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This was first published in November 2004

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