As for web servers, the only thing you really could configure were virtual directories. Go to the download area for IIS4. This magic is made possible by the new repository for configuration metadata, the Metabase. One thing I didn't mention so far about the Metabase is that it supports inheritance.
All values set at the server level only affect the specific servers, but are still inheritable.
An example would be to set Read permissions on a directory branch which promote to all sub-directories until you set specific other permissions to one of those subdirectories. Implementation Details of the Metabase One important thing to know is where this Metabase is stored. The file is loaded from disk when IIS starts, stored periodically to disk and closed when the IIS service is stopped. Please note that you first have to stop IIS service before doing so - and of course have the necessary administrative rights to do so. Additionally to the improved performance, it has been developed to DCOM standards.