The product has been redesigned for Longhorn with security in mind, can now run server-side applications with the help of Microsoft's .Net programming languages, and has transitioned from a boutique-style Internet server into a world-class set of code that can run even the most intense Internet-facing applications.

So what improvements will IIS 7, included in the upcoming Longhorn Server, bring to the table? Let's take a look at five major enhancements to IIS and what they mean for you.

IIS is completely modular.

If you're familiar with the popular Apache Web server software, you know that perhaps its biggest strength is that Apache can run on a bare-bones installation. You can configure it to serve just static HTML and nothing else, or you can dynamically load modules that allow different types of content to be processed and served. You can compile a custom Apache installation that does only what you want it to.

IIS has never really been able to pick and choose from its features and abilities, which had two significant drawbacks. For one, its performance somewhat suffered because the code was busy hosting features and supporting content that you may have never intended to use. Two, security was a problem in that the surface area of the product was made larger by default, even if you had no use for some features.