As I said elsewhere on the site one of key issues of running Joomla on a Windows server is to understand and apply correctly the Windows files and folders permissioning system to your Joomla install. Instead of writing my own compilation of how-tos, I reproduce here the excellent tutorial written by Russell Winter on the Joomla tutorials site. All kudos are going to him!

For those of you that are either developing or delivering your Joomla! Web-Sites from the Windows environment, it is sometimes difficult to obtain relevant information regarding permissions. Unfortunately, it is a fact that most Web-Serving is offered under Unix and that Unix is pretty well documented within this environment. Hopefully the following information will go some way to clearing up any confusion and provide a little guidance.

Yeah, you may say that nothing coming out from that Redmond-based factory does not qualify as LAMP environment, and Joomla is built yo be used on LAMP servers, am I right? Yes... and no. Why not let them to play with the best CMS around .

So, what a Windows aficionado should know if wants to run Joomla on his favorite server?

Just upgraded from a static site to Joomla? Or just reorganised your content? And, of course, you don't want to loose your existing Google PageRank and your external links...

What you can do?

301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It's not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you have to change file names or move pages around, it's the safest option. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". This is the solution Google recommends for webmasters to keep their ratings.