URL Rewriting in WordPress using ISAPI-rewrite 3.0

The instructions below pertain to sites hosted on IIS6 or Windows Server 2003 or earlier. In IIS7 and Windows Server 2008 or later, IIS has a built in URL rewriting feature that’s supported by WordPress by default.

One of the easiest and most effective solution for URL rewriting for WordPress in a Windows hosting environment is to use ISAPI Rewrite. ISAPI Rewrite 3.0 is included in all of our shared hosting plans.

1. Login to the admin of your WordPress control panel and click on Options > Permalinks. Select the “Custom” radio button and enter the desired structure in the fields below the radio button.  Please see below as an example.

Custom Structure: /archives/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/
Category base: /archives/category
Tag base: /tags

2. Create a .htaccess file using Notepad or any standard text editor (not Microsoft Word) and paste in the following code. Once completed, upload the file to the root directory of your blog (typically the /wwwroot folder or in some cases /wwwroot/blog):

If you’ve uploaded the rules in the wwwroot/blog folder then the rules will look like below:

# Helicon ISAPI_Rewrite configuration file
# Version 3.0.0.21

# BEGIN WordPress
# <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]
# </IfModule>
# END WordPress

If you have uploaded the rules in the wwwroot folder then the rules will look like below:

# Helicon ISAPI_Rewrite configuration file
# Version 3.0.0.21

# BEGIN WordPress
# <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# </IfModule>
# END WordPress

For further information on ISAPI Rewrite, please reference their website at http://www.helicontech.com/isapi_rewrite/doc/