How to install IIS on Windows XP SP2 without the CD

Having trouble installing a piece of software on your system is frustrating. Do you want to know how to install IIS on Windows XP SP2 without having the SP2 CD?

The problem I experienced installing IIS:

I tried to install Internet Information Service (IIS) on my Windows XP Service Pack 2. The setup failed and kept asking for the Windows XP SP2 CD. I only had the Windows XP SP1 CD and the Service Pack 2 Service Pack 2 installation package.

I tried to find an existing solution on the internet using Google. I read and tried many solutions, including a complicated one from Microsoft Support (support.microsoft.com/?kbid=894351) and some simple “Installing IIS after Service Pack 2” solutions. None of those solutions I found really worked, or the instructions were too complicated to follow.

I finally had to figure it out myself. Here’s what I did: I unpacked the SP2 setup file using WinRar a while ago and compiled a CD image file from it. I mounted this CD image to a virtual CD. I install and use this virtual CD to supply the missing files that are somewhere inside the I386 folder.

Here are the steps you can follow to install IIS without having a Windows XP SP2 CD:

1. Download the XP SP2 setup file (softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html) if you don’t already have it.
2. Extract the archive contents to a folder using WinRar (win-rar.com) or similar compression software;
3. Start installing IIS using the standard procedure (Control Panel > Add and Remove Programs > Windows Components)
4. When it asks for the source folder, find the I386 folder you extracted earlier
5. When requesting missing files, browse I386 and its subfolders to find them.

The solution was easier than it seems. You don’t need to riskily tamper with the Windows security folder. No need to spend time merging SP2 onto the Windows XP CD. All you need to do is use what was already there.