Folks, I am struggling getting a new windows 11 pro localhost (development) coldfusion server running IIS 10 to load up and serve cfml pages. I can run a simple .html file, but cfm files end up as template not found. I'm simply installing the latest 2021 and all updates applied. Ran WSConfig so many times, removed jakarta virtual directories and manually creating them. I have verified that default document is index.cfm and when I run the host file record wwwgct.com it gives me a 403 error. If I run wwwgct.com/index.cfm - template not found exception, wwwgct.com/test.HTML will load up just fine. So many google searches and I don't know why or any idea where else to look. If you have any questions I would appreciate the help.

I would recommend looking at commandbox if you haven't already. You can spin up a CF server from the command line. https://commandbox.ortusbooks.com/embedded-server

Not using CommandBox

Any reason why you don't want to use CommandBox?

@Paul Giesenhagen Just download

box.exe

to your desktop, double click on it, then run

cd C:/path/to/your/site
server start cfengine=adobe@2021

And you're done. Nothing else needs to be installed on the server.

not using commandbox for this and just need help.

I know you're not using CommandBox, but seriously it is easily the modern and best way to get a dev machine setup. It works great in production as well.

I am using commandbox, but not with this project

I would not use IIS on Windows 11 to do dev on CF, unless you really need windows specific code, and even then, better off running your dev on an actual server. That being said, as ADMINISTRATOR, install IIS, once IIS is installed, Go to settings, go to privacy and security, Disable real-time protection, add an exclusion folder, folders to add, IIS, Your C:\CF2021 & WhateverWebRootYouAreGoinGToUSE. Go to Control Panel, Disable your Windows Firewall, Go to your coldfusionXXX binary, right-click on it, and CHOOSE INSTALL AS ADMINISTRATOR, choose the path c:\cf2021 Follow prompts blindly and click YES. once done go back to IIS, restart the service. You should now have a appPool Connector for CF2021. Finally, Add your WebDev site and make it match the Exclusion Folder you added above. Now Go to Windows Firewall, Add all ports needed for your CFInstall both inbound and outbound, by port and by program executable. OR create a Microsoft LoopBack Adapter, Assign It an private ip address of 127.0.0.10 or what not, Then create a rule to allow all traffic from the loopback adapter to all inbound and outbound traffic. Then assign your CFIISDev to the bound 127.0.0.10. Finally and this is the most important part, send me 7.99 for a beer, as beer..