Article ID: 240225 - Last Review: July 7, 2008 - Revision: 5.4

Description of Adsutil and MetaEdit Utilities Used to Modify the Metabase

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This article was previously published under Q240225

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2008. IIS 7.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx)

For more information about IIS 7.0, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1 (http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1)

SUMMARY

This article describes the Adsutil and MetaEdit tools, which are used to modify the metabase.

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MORE INFORMATION

Adsutil

Adsutil is a command-line utility, written in Visual Basic, Scripting Edition, that uses the Cscript.exe command line scripting utility that comes with the Windows NT Option Pack. Adsutil.vbs is located in the %SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\adminsamples folder.

The documentation for Adsutil.vbs is located in the following locations (assuming that the product documentation is installed on the local computer):

Description of how to use sample administration scripts, including Adsutil:
```
http://localhost/iishelp/iis/htm/adminsamples/default.htm
					
```

How to use Adsutil:

http://localhost/iishelp/iis/htm/adminsamples/adsutil.htm

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MetaEdit

The IIS 4.0 Resource Kit describes MetaEdit as follows:

The Metabase Editor (MetaEdit) is a tool that provides similar functionality to the Windows NT Registry Editor. Using MetaEdit, you can browse and modify attributes in the Metabase. Note that in using MetaEdit, you can make changes that may damage your IIS configuration. Be sure to edit all entries carefully.

MetaEdit is one of the utilities that ship with the IIS 4.0 Resource Kit, which is available from Microsoft Press..

The MetaEdit documentation (MetaEdit.doc) is located in the \IIS Resource Kit\Utility\MetaEdit folder on the IIS Resource Kit compact disc.

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Mdutil.exe

Another utility, Mdutil.exe, is included on the NTOP and Windows 2000 CDs only, in the following locations:

IIS4: NTOP-CD:\ntoptpak\x86\en\winnt.srv
IIS5: Win2k-CD:\i386\mdutil.ex_ NOTE: You must use Expand.exe to decompress this file.

Mdutil.exe is NOT included with the Web download of the NTOP, and has NO documentation beyond the help page that is displayed when no parameters are specified. Like Metaedit.exe, Mdutil.exe is not a supported utility.

NOTE: Although the syntax for configuring the metabase with Mdutil.exe is very similar to that of Adsutil.vbs, some metabase property names may be different, because Adsutil.vbs uses the IIS Admin Objects (IISAO), the ADSI provider supplied with IIS. Mdutil.exe uses the IIS Admin Base Objects (ISABO), a C/C++ interface for programmatically accessing the metabase.

For more information on ADSUTIL.vbs documentation in IIS version 6.0, please see the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/8647daf0-ec45-430c-9c3a-a54609ec92a7.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/8647daf0-ec45-430c-9c3a-a54609ec92a7.mspx)

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