Umbraco can make use of so called "friendly" or "extensionless" URLs; instead of pages like www.yoursite.com/news.aspx , URLs like www.yoursite.com/news/ can be used.
For IIS6...
- In web.config, set the umbracoUseDirectoryUrls value to true.
Then open your IIS administration panel and follow these steps:
- Go to the root of your website and click properties
- Select the tab: Home directory
- Click configuration
- Then click insert a new wildcard application in the bottom of that screen
- An input box pops up. Select the .net Handler: c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll (or v4.... if you are running Umbraco 4.5+)
- Uncheck the verify file exists checkbox
Tip: Depending on your Umbraco version you may also have to add "/umbraco" to the "umbracoReservedUrls" setting in your web.config, otherwise you'll find that navigating to "/umbraco/" works fine, but navigating to "/umbraco" (without the trailing slash) will get you the "Page not found" message.
For IIS7 (integrated pipeline application pool)...
Everything is much easier if you use IIS7 Integrated Pipeline. Basically only 2 steps are required within the web.config of your website:
- In web.config, set the umbracoUseDirectoryUrls value to true.
- Locate <Modules> node and add a single attribute preCondition into the UrlRewriteModule node; it is required that the attribute is empty. Your entry should look like this: <add name="UrlRewriteModule" type="UrlRewritingNet.Web.UrlRewriteModule, UrlRewritingNet.UrlRewriter" preCondition="" />
For more information about how IIS7 handles wildcard mapping or why adding an attribute with no value is required: learn.iis.net/.../