Remove index.php from url in permalinks over IIS server (web.config)

Question

I have a WP installation in its own folder (my-domain.com/site) and I'm trying that site works over my-domain.com. I'm not moving the installation files, actually I'm just giving to WP its own directory.

The WP installation is running over an IIS server. So I have a web.config file.

I've already done the steps that Wordpress Codex says:

1. Change the site address to my-domain.com.
2. Copy (not move) the index.php and MOVE the web.config, both to root directory.
3. In index.php (root directory) I've changed this line: require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/site/wp-blog-header.php' );

According WP Codex for Permalinks without mod_rewrite, in the permalinks settings (in dashboard) I set to: /index.php/%postname%/. If I remove the index.php part from the permalinks settings doesn't work anymore.

Right now my permalinks are working, but in this way: my-domain.com/index.php/page_example. I want to remove the "/index.php/" part from the url.

In my web.config I have:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
      <rules>
        <rule name="wordpress" stopProcessing="true">
          <match url=".*" />
          <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
          </conditions>
          <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
        </rule>
      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

I've tried even add a <clear/> before add the rule but without success.

Note: If I left the site address (URL) with: my-domain.com/site and remove the "/index.php/" part from permalinks settings, the permalinks works good like this: my-domain.com/page_example.

Any idea how to solve this? Maybe I'm missing some rules in the web.config

Answer 1

There was something installed on the IIS server that was capable to read the .htaccess files; and was ignoring the web.config so the WP documentation with .htaccess works for me.

Answer 2

Please try below in your web.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off" />
        <compilation debug="true" />
    </system.web>
    <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
            <rules>
                <rule name="Imported Rule 1" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="^(.*)$" ignoreCase="false" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                        <add input="{R:1}" pattern="\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="/index.php/{R:1}" />
                </rule>
            </rules>
        </rewrite>
    <security>
            <requestFiltering allowDoubleEscaping="true" />
     </security>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>