IIS 7.0: Explore The Web Server For Windows Vista And Beyond -- MSDN Magazine, March 2007

Useful introduction to IIS 7.0. 

The release of IIS 7.0 coincides with the ten-year anniversary of the release of the first version of IIS, in Windows NT^® 4.0. In 2001, four versions later, IIS 5.0 became the most prevalent Web server on the Internet, though months later it fell victim to the infamous Code Red and Nimbda worms. IIS 6.0, released in Windows Server^® 2003, was a major rewrite of the server, focused entirely on improving security, reliability, and performance. Since then, IIS 6.0 has proven to be a rock-solid Web server, achieving high reliability and security track records with only a single critical security bulletin since its release (which was not exploitable remotely).

In this article, I want to take the opportunity to present the major reasons why the next-generation IIS 7.0 Web server makes such a big difference to developers and administrators alike-and give you a head start in using many of its new features.

Check Figure 5 in the article (which I annoyingly can't drag & drop into this post, due to Blogger limitations) for a summary of fairly radical simplification relative to IIS 6.

Source: IIS 7.0: Explore The Web Server For Windows Vista And Beyond -- MSDN Magazine, March 2007