Yes, I've put Concrete on Windows servers before.

Here are a couple observations and issues I ran into during the process:

1. MySQL

MySQL handles casing differently on Windows than it does on Linux, due to OS differences. There is a setting you can use that helps make it more compatible. Out of the box, I occasionally would run into issues where PHP code would make a bad reference to a database table because of this issue. In general I have found that Concrete works fine on a Windows MySQL database, but you need to convert the table names if you are porting from a Windows server to a Linux server

2. IIS

IIS 7.0 works great, but I have experienced some problems with earlier versions. Namely, IIS 7.0 has easy installs for PHP and for URL rewriting. Earlier versions require third-party software to enable URL rewriting, which is a key feature if you don't want "index.php" to show up in all your URLs. Occasionally I have also run into incompatibilities, as most developers use Apache so concrete is not bug tested against IIS as much

3. Cost

Obviously a small thing, but I've had bad experiences with clients who own space on a Windows host and they have to pay too much for it. The host then charges extra for every little feature, like a scheduled task or URL rewriting.


Bottom line is that I have regularly run Concrete off of my local machine, using MySQL and IIS. I have run into issues in the past, but the core team is usually fast about addressing any incompatibilities.

If you need a Windows host for other sites or applications, it can work, especially if PHP is set up and you have URL rewriting. If all you need is Concrete, I would recommend hosting with HostGator or some other inexpensive Linux host, since you'll probably have a better experience in the end

Thanks for that quick reply - it answers my question. I think I'll try to stick with Linux as much as possible unless I'm ready to learn about and work through the caveats you spoke of.