---
title: Registering an instance in KIM
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k9/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/upgrading-and-hotfixing-an-instance-in-kim.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k9/external-utilities/kentico-installation-manager/uninstalling-an-instance-in-kim.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).

When you install a new Kentico instance on a machine, it is automatically registered within Kentico Installation Manager. In some cases though, you may need to register instances manually. For example:

- Instances transferred or copied onto the machine without going through the installation
- Microsoft Azure projects

## Registering an instance in KIM

> **Info:** **Requirements**:
>
> - KIM is compatible with Kentico instances starting from the previous major version. For example, you can register instances of Kentico 8 (any minor version) or 9 in KIM 9.
> - For instances of Kentico 8 or newer, you can only register complete web projects that use the standard folder structure (including the solution file, CMS and Lib sub-folders etc.). For example, you cannot add web site deployments of the CMS folder as instances in KIM.

1. Click **Register** on the main toolbar.

   ![Click Register on the main toolbar](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k9/registering-an-instance-in-kim/KIM_click_register.png "Click Register on the main toolbar")
2. Enter the following details:

   - **Name** - identifying name of the instance displayed in the **Name** column in the list of instances.
   - **URL** - the URL under which the instance is accessible.
   - **Physical path** - path to the instance's web project root folder in the file system.
   - **Show site selection after clicking Browse** - if enabled, the tool displays a dialog with available web sites of the particular instance after clicking the **Browse** button (useful for multi-site instances).

     ![Registering an Azure instance in KIM](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k9/registering-an-instance-in-kim/Register_new_instance.png "Registering an Azure instance in KIM")
3. Click **OK**.

The KIM registers your instance and displays it in the list of managed instances.

## Where is the information stored

Information about registered instances is stored in **c:\ProgramData\KIM\kim.xml**. The root __ element contains __ elements that represent individual registered instances. The __ elements have the following sub-elements representing properties of the registered instances:

- **** - unique identifier of the instance (not related to the application GUID in the _web.config_ file of the given instance).
- **** - URL under which the instance is accessible.
- **** - identifying name of the instance displayed in the **Name** column in the list of instances.
- **** - version of Kentico.
- **** - path to the instance's web project root folder in the file system.
- **** - date and time when the instance was registered in Kentico Installation Manager.
- **** - number of the latest hotfix applied to the instance.
- **** - represents the .NET Framework version used by the instance. The stored number does not match the .NET version, using the following encoding instead:

  | .NET version | Encoding number |
  | ------------ | --------------- |
  | 2            | 2               |
  | 3.5          | 4               |
  | 4            | 8               |
  | 4.5          | 16              |
- **** - indicates if a dialog box with available web sites on the given instance is displayed after clicking the **Browse** button.

```csharp title="Example"

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<sites>
  <item>
    <guid>6085ee02-8fff-4978-abd1-1a0261a57724</guid>
    <url>http://localhost/Kentico9/</url>
    <name>Kentico9</name>
    <version>9.0</version>
    <path>C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Kentico9</path>
    <created>2014-05-24T08:26:39</created>
    <hotfix>0</hotfix>
    <netversion>16</netversion>
    <showlist>1</showlist>
  </item>
  ...
</sites>

```