Installation Questions and Answers

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Although installing Kentico Xperience on a local machine is straightforward, you might still need some additional information about the choices you can make.

Most of the options in the Installer have tooltips available, which can help you make the right decisions during the installation process.

This page gives advice about some of the options in the Custom installation:

When to register installed projects into IIS?

When installing new Xperience web projects, you can choose whether to register the projects as applications in the local Internet Information Services server. In most scenarios, we recommend leaving IIS registration enabled – this allows you to immediately run the site without further configuration in IIS. If you do not have IIS server installed, the free IIS Express version is installed automatically for you.

You may wish to disable the IIS registration in certain scenarios, for example:

  • You are a developer who wants to use the built-in web server in Visual Studio to run the project (suitable for debugging).
  • You want to create and configure the IIS applications manually (e.g., if you do not wish to use the default application name and alias). See Manually configuring Xperience applications in IIS.
  • You only wish to prepare the project files on your local computer and then copy them to another server (for example over FTP).

Note: If you disable registration to IIS during an installation, you need to manually set the Presentation URL of your site in the Xperience Sites application to the URL where your live site is running (see Setting domain names for sites).

The installer does not support automatic registration into IIS for ASP.NET Core live site projects, only for the Xperience administration application. To learn more about registering Core projects under IIS together with the administration application, see Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS.

How to install Xperience to the root of a website?

If you wish to run Xperience in the root of an IIS website:

  1. Perform a standard installation of Xperience (installs to an IIS virtual directory).

  2. Develop the project.

  3. Deploy the completed project to the root of your IIS website. For example, use one of the following approaches:  

    • Publish the project from Visual Studio
    • Directly copy the web project files to the server’s root folder (for the Xperience web project, copy only the CMS folder, e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Xperience\CMS)

You can find more information about virtual directories in this article: Understanding Sites, Applications, and Virtual Directories on IIS 7

Which .NET Framework version do installed projects target?

Projects created by the installer always target the minimum supported .NET Framework version required by Xperience (4.8 for Xperience 13). If the machine does not contain the minimum required .NET version, it is installed automatically as part of the Xperience installation.

Can I change the Target framework version of installed projects?

Yes. You can increase the Target framework of installed Xperience projects to a higher .NET version.

  1. Open the project in Visual Studio.
  2. Manually change the Target framework version.

If you update the Target framework version for a project, we also recommend consolidating all installed NuGet packages to target the same version:

  1. In Visual Studio, open the Package Manager Console (under Tools > NuGet Package Manager).

  2. Run the following commands:

    


 Uninstall-Package -Id Rx-Main -Force -RemoveDependencies;
 Uninstall-Package -Id linqtotwitter -Force;
 Update-Package -reinstall;
 Install-Package -Id linqtotwitter -Version 4.0.0

The Update-Package command reinstalls all NuGet packages with the appropriate target framework version for your project. The other Uninstall-Package and Install-Package commands manually remove and add packages that could cause errors during the reinstallation.

When should I install only program files?

The Xperience program files contain external utilities (Kentico Installation Manager, Kentico Service Manager, etc.) and are needed to install web projects on your computer. The installation of program files is separated from the rest, so you can install only the program files if you do not want to install the web project, database and website at the same time. When you run the Installer again, you do not need to install the program files and can install a new web project without delays.

You can also uninstall the program files or move them to a different location:

  • To uninstall, use the Uninstall -> Remove only Kentico program files option of the installer.
  • To move the program files, uninstall them first and then use the Custom installation -> Program files -> Install only program files option to install them again in a different location.

The option Install only program files is available only during the first installation of Xperience or after you uninstall the program files using the Installer.

What if I do not install the database with my web project?

Without a database, your web project cannot function at all. If you do not have an SQL server available during the installation process, consider selecting only the Installation with database option. In this case, the free SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB is installed automatically.

If you do not create the database during the installation process, you can install it later. When you access the Xperience administration project (not the live site) without a database in a browser, the system opens a database installation wizard (see Additional database installation).

You also need to manually set up your live site and project after installing the database in your browser.

How can I access my LocalDB database through Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio?

Use the (localdb)\Kentico server name. The database files (Kentico13.mdf, Kentico13_log.ldf) are physically stored in your user’s profile (e.g., C:\Users\Andy\).

What is the Windows service for Scheduler?

The Scheduler service Windows service allows you to improve the performance and reliability of some scheduled tasks.

The service can also be installed and uninstalled separately after installation using the Kentico Xperience Service Manager.

Can I install and uninstall modules or other components after the installation of my web project?

Yes, using the Modify option of the Installer. See Adding and removing installation components for more information.

Which site should I install?

Choose the New site option if you wish to develop a new website. To evaluate the system or find examples for your own development, choose the Dancing Goat sample site.

Saving the XML configuration

If you save the configuration of an installation into an XML file, you can load it the next time you need to install Xperience on a computer. You can also use the XML file to install Xperience through the command line. See the Installing Xperience from the command line topic and the Command line installation - XML configuration, where you can also learn how to adjust the XML file manually.

Can I run the Installer if I accidentally delete the Kentico_version.exe file?

Yes, you can run the installer from the Windows Start menu by selecting Kentico Installer from the Kentico folder. If you run the Installer this way though, you will not be able to uninstall the Xperience program files.

To run the Xperience Installer with all options:

  1. Open Windows Start -> Kentico -> Uninstall Kentico.
  2. Select Kentico in the Programs and Features list.
  3. Click Change.

Windows opens the full Xperience Installer.

Where can I find the installation log?

The path to the log is C:\Program Files (x86)\Kentico\13.0\ or the location of the program files.

Where can I get more information?

You can contact our support department, who will be happy to assist, at support@kentico.com.