---
title: Kentico Installation Manager
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-service-manager.md
---

> 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).

Kentico Installation Manager (also referred to as **KIM**) is an external utility which enables installation and management of Kentico instances. You can manage all instances installed on a single machine using this tool, which is especially useful on machines with a large number of instances.

##### Launching the KIM utility

You can launch this utility by selecting **Kentico Installation Manager** from the Kentico folder in Windows Start menu.

## Kentico Installation Manager interface

![Kentico Installation Manager](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k8/kentico-installation-manager/Kim_8.png "Kentico Installation Manager")

**Browse** - opens the URL of the selected instance in a new browser window.

**Manage** - opens the Kentico administration interface of the selected instance in a new browser window.

**Edit** - opens the selected instance's web project in Visual Studio.

**Install** - opens the Kentico Installer, which you can use to create new Kentico instances.

**Uninstall** - uninstalls the selected instances, optionally including removal from the file system, IIS, database and from the instances list in KIM. See [Uninstalling an instance in KIM](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/uninstalling-an-instance-in-kim.md).

**Deploy to ...** - allows you to deploy Windows Azure projects.

> **Info:** **Deploying web site projects**
>
> If you have [hotfix](http://devnet.kentico.com/download/hotfixes) 8.0.2 or newer applied to your setup files, you can deploy _**web site**_ projects to a specific directory or remote server. The deployment copies the content of the CMS folder, which you can then use as the physical path of an application in IIS.
>
> The **Deploy to** functionality is not available for web application projects.

**Upgrade/Hotfix** - opens a dialog box where you can upgrade or hotfix the currently selected instances. See [Upgrading and hotfixing an instance in KIM](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/upgrading-and-hotfixing-an-instance-in-kim.md).

**Check** - checks if there are any new upgrades or hotfixes available for any of the managed instances. See [Upgrading and hotfixing an instance in KIM](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/upgrading-and-hotfixing-an-instance-in-kim.md).

**Register** - opens a dialog where you can manually register instances for management by KIM. See [Registering an instance in KIM](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/registering-an-instance-in-kim.md).

**Unregister** - unregisters the selected instance from KIM (removes it from the list). See [Registering an instance in KIM](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/registering-an-instance-in-kim.md).

**Services** - opens Kentico Service Manager, where you can install and manage Kentico Windows services. See [Kentico Service Manager](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/external-utilities/kentico-service-manager.md).

**Settings** - opens a dialog where you can adjust settings related to upgrading and hotfixing. See [Upgrade and hotfix settings](#upgrade-and-hotfix-settings).

In cases where a large number of instances is registered in the utility, you can use the **Find** text box below the toolbar to search for particular instances by the value stored in their **Name** column.

## Upgrade and hotfix settings

You can adjust the settings related to upgrading and hotfixing by clicking the**Settings** button on the main toolbar.

On the **General** tab, you can adjust the following settings:

- **Check for upgrades/hotfixes** - determines when KIM checks if new hotfixes or upgrades are available for registered instances.
  - **On start** - KIM checks for updates/hotfixes automatically upon launching.
  - **Manually** - KIM checks only after selecting the **Upgrade/Hotfix** or **Check** action from the toolbar.
- **New upgrades/hotfixes** - determines what to do when new upgrades or hotfixes are found. Only applicable if **On start** is selected above.
  - **Announce** - KIM displays a notification message.
  - **Download** - KIM downloads all new upgrades and hotfixes automatically.

On the **Cache** tab, you can see the number of temporary upgrade and hotfix folders. These folders contain upgrade/hotfix data unpacked from downloaded upgrade/hotfix packages and are stored in _C:\ProgramData\KIM_.

You can delete these temporary folders by clicking the **Delete** button.

On the **Update** tab, you can check for available updates of Kentico external utilities and setup files.

## Deployment to Azure

By clicking **Deploy to Azure**, you can easily deploy your Windows Azure instances of Kentico to a Windows Azure server.

Before you can use this feature, you need to create a certificate that provides access to the Windows Azure Service Management API functionality.

Use the instructions on the [Create a Service Certificate for Azure](http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/azure/gg432987.aspx) page to create a X.509 v3 certificate on your machine and create a personal information exchange certificate, which you have to upload to the Windows Azure via [Windows Azure portal](https://manage.windowsazure.com/).

**See also**: [Running Kentico on Windows Azure](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/running-kentico-on-windows-azure.md)
