To keep your operating system completely separate from all the web stuff, it is advisable to move inetpub directory off the root of a
%SystemDrive% to a completly different drive.

In these sample I am moving IIS from C:\inetpub to x:\inetpub.   Adjust this to your needs.

Steps described here were tested on Windows 7 IIS 7.5 and Windows 2008 Server R2 IIS 7.5.

Check if your http://localhost/ is working before proceeding.

 

-01- Stop all IIS-related services

Stop services related to IIS:

– FTP (if installed)
– IIS Admin
– SMTP (if installed)
– Windows Process Activation (will stop all other IIS services)
– WWW (will be stopped by stopping previous service)

 

-02- Move the Entire inetpub Directory

You would need to take ownership for couple of files away from from NT Service\TrustedInstaller.
On Windows 7 I even had to reboot into a parallel install and take ownership for two files to be able to move the folder.   On Windows 2008 Server R2 no restart was necessary.

 

-03- Make Required  Registry Modifications

For x32 machines you only need these two:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp /v PathWWWRoot /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d X:\inetpub\wwwroot /f
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS\Parameters /v ConfigIsolationPath /t REG_SZ /d X:\inetpub\temp\appPools /f

For x64 systems one additional modification is needed:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\InetStp /v PathWWWRoot /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d X:\inetpub\wwwroot /f

 

-04- Make Modifications to IIS Configuration File

First backup file applicationHost.config in %WinDir%\System32\inetsrv\config\ directory, and only then proceed.

Open file in Notepad:

notepad %WinDir%\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config

in Notepad.  Here you search for %SystemDrive%\inetpub and replace with your new inetpub location string.

This method allows you to make changes to existing settings.  But now we need to add a new setting, because default values are no longer valid. To do that, we will use a different approach:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config -section:system.applicationhost/configHistory -path:X:\inetpub\history

 

 

 

-05- Restart IIS Services and Test

Note that Windows Process Activation service must start for WWW Service to start.

Test and see, if  http://localhost/ is still works.

You are done.  Please ignore old sections bellow this point.

 

 

 

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-0X- Modify IIS Meta Database (Please ignore – no longer required)

Make meta-database modifications from admin elevated command prompt.  This step relies on a script file adsutil.vbs that is only installed, if you add IIS 6 Compatibility Feature.

Values in IIS meta-database are arranged in a series of sub-folders.    Command adsutil.vbs ENUM allows to list all sub-folders and all the values at a given level.

List all the values that you might need to update in each directory before updating:
cscript X:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs ENUM
cscript X:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs ENUM /W3SVC
cscript X:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs ENUM /W3SVC/1/ROOT

Start updating found values. On my system 3 entries require an update : -01- AspDiskTemplateCacheDirectory, -02- LogFileDirectory and -03- path.
cscript X:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs set w3svc/AspDiskTemplateCacheDirectory “X:\inetpub\temp\ASP Compiled Templates”
cscript X:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs set w3svc/LogFileDirectory “X:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles”
cscript X:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs set w3svc/1/root/path “X:\inetpub\wwwroot”

Note that your entries could be different, if you renamed your default site or assigned it a different ID.  You will have more entries to update,  if you have several sites defined prior to inetpub movement.