HOW TO: Migrate User's Home Folder Web Sites in a UNIX-to-Windows Migration (323999)

SUMMARY

When you use Apache, you can provide user-specific Web sites by using the tilde (~) character to identify the user's site within the main Web site, for example, http://www.site.com/~user. To use a similar functionality in Windows, you can use the Web Sharing functionality to set the user's Web folder to "~user" in the main Web site. This folder has the same basic rights and functionality as the folder that is shared under Apache.

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Creating a User Folder

There is no easy way to directly map users to a specific folder that can be automatically shared. However, you can set aside a special folder to hold all of the user's Web sites or you can set aside a special folder within each user's home folder on the server (if they have one) to be shared within the scope of the main Web server.

To create a new folder for an individual user's Web site:

1. Select a location for the folder.
   
   Microsoft recommends that you use a single folder to contain all the user Web sites so that you can control the Web sites easily.
2. Create a folder to hold the user's Web site.
3. Right-click the new folder, and then click Properties.
4. To configure Internet Information Services (IIS) so that the user can access the folder from another computer:
   1. Click the Sharing tab, and then share the folder.
   2. Type the name that the Web site will be made available as to the user.
   3. Change the User limit setting to 1 to limit access only to the owner.
   4. Click Permissions, and then configure the folder to grant full rights only to the user.
5. Click the Security tab, and then grant access only to the user.

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Using Web Sharing

To use the Web Sharing functionality for a user folder so that the folder can be accessed by other users:

1. Find the user folder that you created in the "Creating a User Folder" section of this article.
2. Right-click the new folder, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Web Sharing tab, and then click Share this folder.
4. Select the Web site under which this folder is shared.
5. Click Add to add an alias for this folder within the Web site.
6. In the Alias box, type the alias for the site.
   
   To match Apache, use the user's short name prefixed with the tilde (~) character.
7. Set the access permissions for the folder.
   
   Click Read to allow people to view the Web site.
8. Select the program permissions for the folder.
   
   To allow only static files, click None. To allow ASP pages to be used, click Scripts. To allow CGI and other elements, click Execute.
9. Click OK, and then click OK to save the Web Sharing settings for the folder.

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