---
title: Installing Xperience
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

The following procedure describes how to install Kentico Xperience. The installation creates two separate projects – an MVC 5 or ASP.NET Core project for the live site, and an Xperience project that provides the content editing and administration interface.

1. Click **Next** on the welcome screen of the installer.
2. Select your country. The installer automatically tries to pre-select the appropriate country based on your system's locale.
3. Accept the license terms.
4. Click **Next**.
5. Click **Custom installation**.

   ![Custom installation](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/installing-xperience/Installer_custom.png "Custom installation")
6. Check if the installation location for the program files suits you (these are only the setup files, not the web project).

   - Click the file system path if you wish to specify a custom location for the program files.
   - [When should I install only program files?](https://docs.kentico.com/13/installation/installation-questions-and-answers.md#when-should-i-install-only-program-files)

   ![Choosing the program files installation location](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/installing-xperience/Installer_custom_programfiles.png "Choosing the program files installation location")
7. Click **Next**.
8. Select a development model (_ASP.NET Core_ or _ASP.NET MVC 5_) and click **Next**.
9. Specify the target location for the new web projects.

   > **Info:** **Installing new sites into existing Xperience instances**
   >
   > If you wish to add a new site into an existing Xperience administration project, set the target location to the given project's installation folder.
   >
   > In this scenario, the installer adds the live site project into the specified folder and uses the administration project's existing database. A new Xperience administration project is not created.
   >
   > Installation into existing instances is NOT supported for the Dancing Goat sample site with the ASP.NET Core development model.

   ![Configuring the type of an installation](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/installing-xperience/Installer_custom_installation_type_mvc.png "Configuring the type of an installation")
10. Configure the installation type options:

    - **Register to IIS** – if enabled, the installer registers the new web projects as applications in the local Internet Information Services server.

      - [When to register installed projects into IIS?](https://docs.kentico.com/13/installation/installation-questions-and-answers.md#when-to-register-installed-projects-into-iis)
      - If you do not have IIS installed, the utility automatically installs the simplified version, IIS Express.
      - If you disable registration to IIS in the installer, you need to create and configure the IIS applications manually after the installation (for both live site and Xperience administration projects). Also, you need to 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](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/managing-sites/setting-domain-names-for-sites.md)).
      - 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](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/host-and-deploy/iis).
    - **Site**

      - **New site** – installs a blank project suitable for the development of a new site. Enter a **Name**, which affects all things related to the new project, such as the project folder on the file system, the project and assembly name in Visual Studio, the virtual directory and application name in IIS, and the name of the corresponding site in Xperience.

        > **Note:** Do not set the site's name to _"global"_. This is a reserved system keyword and could lead to various issues and inconsistencies.
      - **Dancing Goat sample site** – installs a [sample project and site](https://devnet.kentico.com/articles/kentico-xperience-sample-sites-and-their-differences). Suitable for evaluation purposes or as inspiration for your own development.

        > **Info:** **License limitations for the sample site**
        >
        > The Dancing Goat sample site uses features that are only available in the **Kentico Xperience Enterprise** license edition. If you use the lower Kentico Xperience Business license edition, you may encounter problems. The initial trial license is equivalent to an Enterprise license.
11. Click **Next**.
12. Select the **I have access to SQL server** option.

    - [What if I do not install the database with my web project?](https://docs.kentico.com/13/installation/installation-questions-and-answers.md#what-if-i-do-not-install-the-database-with-my-web-project)

    > **Note:** If you are installing a new site into an existing Xperience instance, the installer automatically uses the given instance's database. In this scenario, all information on the **Database** tab is read-only, and you can directly start the installation by clicking **Install** (skip the remaining steps on this page).
13. Specify the name of your SQL server and choose an authentication option.

    > **Info:** If you choose the **Integrated Windows authentication** option, make sure that your Windows account exists as a user in the SQL server database, and has full permissions and the correct schema configured (the recommended database schema is _dbo_).
14. Click **Establish connection**.
15. Type the name of a new database for your web project.

    ![Setting up the database installation](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/installing-xperience/Installer_custom_database.png "Setting up the database installation")
16. Click **Next**.
17. Choose which additional components you wish to install for the Xperience administration project (not available when installing a site into an existing Xperience instance).
    - [What is the Windows service for Scheduler?](https://docs.kentico.com/13/installation/installation-questions-and-answers.md#what-is-the-windows-service-for-scheduler)
18. Click **Next**.
19. Decide whether to enable the [Kentico improvement program](https://docs.kentico.com/13/release-notes-xperience-13/kentico-improvement-program.md) for the installed instance (via the **Send anonymous usage records to Kentico** checkbox).

    ![Opting in for the Kentico improvement program](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/installing-xperience/Installer_custom_improvements.png "Opting in for the Kentico improvement program")
20. Click **Install**.

After the installation is successfully finished, the administration interface opens in the default browser. If you have installed the Dancing Goat sample site, the live site also opens in another tab. For new sites, the installation creates a blank project and an empty site, so you need to develop the code and add content before the live site becomes available.

> **Info:** **Default URLs**
>
> **For MVC 5 projects**
>
> The default URL of the live site is based on the following pattern: _http://localhost/\__
>
> For example: _http://localhost/Xperience\_AcmeSite_ or _http://localhost/Xperience\_DancingGoatMvc_ (for the Dancing Goat MVC sample site)
>
> The default URL of the administration interface is: _http://localhost/\_Admin_
>
> **For ASP.NET Core projects**
>
> The default URL of the administration interface is: _http://localhost/\_Admin_
>
> The connected live site project is not by default registered to IIS or any other hosting server.
>
> If installing the Dancing Goat Core sample site, the installation process starts a Kestrel instance (using _dotnet run_) after the installation finishes. In this case, the application starts running on a randomly selected empty port.
>
> **Administration interface credentials**
>
> To sign in to the administration interface after the installation, use the **administrator** username with a blank password. We strongly recommend [setting a new password](https://docs.kentico.com/13/managing-users/user-management.md) for the administrator account after the installation.