Cheeso's questions

I have a hosted server.

When I update .htaccess, are the updated rules immediately in effect?

I understand that hosters can do what they want, and it's impossible to know without knowing the particular policy of this particular hoster. But in the normal case, if I update .htaccess, does Apache re-read it immediately? Or is there something I can do to tell Apache to re-read it?

or what?

Is it necessary to restart IIS when installing a new ISAPI filter?

Always? Sometimes? When?

I'd appreciate documentation links, if you have 'em.

Thanks.

Using Vista...

I have a script that uses ADSI to set ScriptMaps on an IIS Website. When I look in the IIS Manager after running the script, I can see the Handler Mapping that I've added.

If, in IIS Manager, I then remove those Handler Mappings, then run another ADSI script to query the ScriptMaps property, the retrieved ScriptMaps in the script still lists the removed extension. In other words, the results in the ADSI script don't agree with the list of "Handler Mappings" shown in the IIS Manager.

This happens even if I start/stop IISADMIN and W3SVC.

Is this expected behavior? I think ADSI is supported as a "compatibility mode" in IIS7.

I believe that if the Handler Mapping is removed via IIS Manager, and the IIS Manager UI indicates that it is gone, then it is really gone, even though it still gets returned from an ADSI query.

Can anyone offer any clarification on this?

Is it correct that IIS6, by default, runs under the NetworkService account (NETWORK SERVICE)? and that NetWorkService is a member of the IIS_WPG group?

Reference: Microsoft TechNet page on IIS6 and security identities and groups.

I'd like to deliver an IT tool for use on Windows. The thing is an ISAPI Filter, and I want to describe installation, operations, and configuration.

Currently this is done in a text file, which is fairly complete, but I think it is not very usable. I think I have a good handle on what should be in the documentation. I'd like input on the How part. What's the best way to deliver documentation for Windows web server administrators?

.CHM? .PDF? .DOCX? .HTM ?

EDIT: I had a text file, but it was getting really long, and it had limited facility for linking, cross-referencing, indexing, and organization. LEt's see, a major section gets underlined with equals signs, a subsection gets underlined with dashes... etc etc. So I tried formatting it this way but in the end the .txt file just did not scale.

Update: I selected SHFB. Here's the output HTML help. What do you think? usable?