Resolving TIA Portal V19 Installation Error Enable IIS and URL

Overview

Siemens TIA Portal V19 (Totally Integrated Automation Portal, release 03/2023) fails during installation on Windows 10/11 and Windows Server systems with the generic error An error occurred during setup. The setup wizard terminates before component files (STEP 7 V19, WinCC V19, Startdrive V19, PLCSIM V19, or TIA Portal Cloud Connector) are deployed to C:\Program Files\Siemens\Automation.

The root cause is a missing or incomplete Internet Information Services (IIS) installation on the host operating system. TIA Portal V19 depends on IIS for the integrated web-based help system, the TIA Portal Help Viewer, the licensing service web interface, and OPC UA discovery endpoints. When the installer cannot provision the required IIS application pools or rewrite rules, the setup rolls back and aborts. In many environments the IIS role is partially installed (World Wide Web Services only) but the URL Rewrite Module 2 is missing, which produces the same setup halt.

This article documents the three-part resolution: enable IIS with the correct sub-features, install Microsoft URL Rewrite Module 2, and execute the Siemens prepare script. The fix applies to clean installs, in-place upgrades from V17/V18, and repair installations on virtualized hosts.

Affected Products and Versions

Prerequisites

Confirm the following before attempting the fix:

1. Operating system is one of the supported platforms: Windows 10 (64-bit) version 21H2/22H2, Windows 11 (64-bit) version 22H2, Windows Server 2019 (Standard/Datacenter), or Windows Server 2022 (Standard/Datacenter).
2. The user account is a member of the local Administrators group and has full control on the installation target directory.
3. At least 30 GB of free disk space on the system drive (TIA Portal V19 plus options, plus Windows reserved storage).
4. All background antivirus and endpoint protection services are temporarily disabled (or the TIA Portal installation directories are added to the exclusion list).
5. The TIA Portal V19 installer media is locally available (USB, mounted ISO, or extracted folder). Network shares with offline files or DFS-R replication will corrupt the install.
6. PowerShell 5.1 or higher and the DISM module are available (default on supported Windows versions).

Root Cause Analysis

TIA Portal V19 ships an integrated Information Server-style help architecture that requires IIS 7.5 or higher with the URL Rewrite Module 2 (IIS 7.5+). The setup bootstrapper (Start.exe in the installer root) performs a prerequisite scan that includes:

• Detection of the W3SVC (World Wide Web Publishing Service) registry hive under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp.
• Verification of the URL Rewrite Module 2 handler registration under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IIS Extensions\IIS URL Rewrite Module 2\Setup\Version.
• Validation that the IIS Common HTTP Features, Request Filtering, and Static Content Compression sub-features are installed.

If any of the checks fail, the bootstrapper writes a non-zero exit code to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\Siemens\TiaPortalSetupLog.txt and rolls back partially created directories. The end-user only sees the generic Microsoft Installer dialog An error occurred during setup with no specific error number, which is why the Siemens knowledge base redirects installers to this IIS/URL Rewrite procedure.

Solution Part 1: Enable Internet Information Services (IIS)

Enable IIS through the Windows Features dialog or PowerShell. The graphical path is fastest on a single workstation.

1. Press Win + R, type appwiz.cpl, and press Enter to open the Programs and Features control panel.
2. Click Turn Windows features on or off in the left pane.
3. In the Windows Features dialog, expand Internet Information Services.
4. Check the top-level Internet Information Services checkbox (this selects the default sub-features automatically).
5. Expand Internet Information Services → World Wide Web Services → Common HTTP Features and verify all three sub-items are checked: Default Document, Directory Browsing, HTTP Errors, Static Content.
6. Expand World Wide Web Services → Application Development Features and check ASP.NET 4.8 (or the highest version available on the host). On Windows 11 22H2, .NET 4.8 is the supported ASP.NET target for TIA Portal V19.
7. Expand Web Management Tools and check IIS Management Console and IIS Management Scripts and Tools.
8. Click OK. Windows applies the feature change and may prompt for source files from the Windows installation media or Windows Update.
9. Reboot the system when prompted, even if the prompt is optional.

For scripted deployment across multiple engineering workstations, use the equivalent PowerShell commands:

On Windows 10/11, replace with the DISM alternative:

Solution Part 2: Install URL Rewrite Module 2

Enabling IIS does not install the URL Rewrite Module 2; it is a separate redistributable from Microsoft. Download and install it before re-running the TIA Portal V19 setup.

1. Download URL Rewrite Module 2.0 (64-bit, rewrite_amd64.msi) from the official Microsoft IIS downloads page.
2. Right-click the installer and select Run as administrator.
3. Accept the license terms and complete the wizard. The installer registers the module under the IIS pipeline and writes the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IIS Extensions\IIS URL Rewrite Module 2\Setup\Version.
4. Verify installation by opening IIS Manager (inetmgr.exe) and confirming the URL Rewrite icon appears at the server level.

Siemens documents URL Rewrite Module 2 as a mandatory prerequisite in support entry 109773589, which lists the IIS sub-features and rewrite module that must be present before the TIA Portal V19 setup can complete.

Solution Part 3: Run the Siemens Prepare Script

Siemens publishes a Prepare.cmd script that re-validates the IIS configuration, registers ASP.NET with IIS, and re-applies URL Rewrite Module 2 handler mappings. The script is the recommended final step before re-launching Start.exe.

1. Open the TIA Portal V19 installer media (mounted ISO or extracted folder).
2. Navigate to Support → Prepare → Prepare.cmd.
3. Right-click Prepare.cmd and select Run as administrator.
4. Wait for the script to finish. Successful execution prints Preparation completed successfully and exits with code 0.
5. Do not close the elevated command prompt until the prompt returns to the input cursor.

Reference the official Siemens procedure at support entry 109955145, which documents the prepare script, supported Windows builds, and the IIS component list verified by the script.

Step-by-Step Installation Procedure (After Prerequisites)

1. Confirm Windows is up to date and the system has been rebooted after the IIS changes.
2. Mount the TIA Portal V19 ISO (for example SIMATIC_TIA_Portal_V19_2023.iso) or insert the installation DVD.
3. Open the mounted drive, right-click Start.exe, and select Run as administrator.
4. In the Setup Launcher, choose the products to install (STEP 7 Professional V19, WinCC V19, Startdrive V19, PLCSIM V19, TIA Portal Cloud Connector, etc.).
5. Accept the license agreement for each product and click Next.
6. Select Install rather than Modify on first deployment.
7. Wait for the progress bar to reach 100%. The setup takes 25–60 minutes depending on the selected product set and the disk performance.
8. When prompted, choose whether to restart now or later. Select Restart now to finalize the installation.
9. After reboot, launch TIA Portal from the Start menu and accept the security prompt for the trusted Siemens certificate.

Verification

Validate the installation is healthy by performing these checks:

1. Process service check: Open services.msc and verify Siemens Automation License Manager, S7DOS Help Server, and World Wide Web Publishing Service are running with Automatic startup type.
2. Port binding check: Run netstat -ano | findstr :80 and netstat -ano | findstr :443. The TIA Portal Help Viewer and licensing web interface should bind to TCP 80/443 on the loopback address.
3. Help Viewer test: Open TIA Portal, press F1, and confirm the help pages render without HTTP 404 or HTTP 500 errors. This confirms URL Rewrite Module 2 is correctly registered.
4. License Manager test: Open the Automation License Manager and confirm local license keys are visible. If the ALM web interface shows Cannot connect to ALM server, re-run Prepare.cmd as administrator.
5. Project open test: Create a new S7-1500 project, add an OB1, compile, and download to a PLCSIM V19 instance. A successful download verifies the full toolchain is operational.
6. Registry check: Confirm HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation\InstalledSoftware\TIAPortal\19.0 contains the Version REG_SZ value 19.0.0.0.

Troubleshooting Matrix

System Requirements Reference

Repairing a Partial Installation

If the TIA Portal V19 setup completed some products but failed midway, use the Windows repair workflow rather than uninstalling the working components.

1. Open appwiz.cpl and locate the highest-version TIA Portal entry (for example SIMATIC TIA Portal V19).
2. Select it, click Change, and choose Repair in the setup launcher.
3. The repair workflow re-runs the prerequisite scan, re-registers URL Rewrite handlers, and recompiles the MSI cache.
4. If repair fails, uninstall only the components that did not install, reboot, confirm IIS and URL Rewrite Module 2 are present, and re-run the setup with the full product set.

Silent Installation for Engineering Workstation Deployment

For IT-managed rollouts to multiple engineering workstations, TIA Portal V19 supports a silent install mode driven by a configuration file.

1. Create a directory C:\Siemens_Install\TIA_V19\.
2. Extract the contents of the V19 ISO to this directory.
3. Mount the directory as drive S: using subst S: C:\Siemens_Install\TIA_V19.
4. Open an elevated command prompt and run S:\Start.exe /Silent /ConfigurationFile=C:\Siemens_Install\TIA_V19\Config\MyConfig.xml.
5. The MyConfig.xml file lists the products to install, license server addresses, and user interface language.
6. Confirm IIS and URL Rewrite Module 2 are present on the target before launching the silent install; the silent install will not prompt for missing prerequisites.

Frequently Asked Questions