First Install — Windows IIS, Directory

This guide will help you install osTicket Awesome for the first time into a directory on your self-hosted Windows IIS server.

If you already have an osTicket or an osTicket Awesome installation, if you’re using a Linux server, or if you are installing to a subdomain (rather than a directory), please go back to this menu.

Most people install osTicket Awesome into a directory. You can name that directory anything that you want. Common names that people use are osticket, helpdesk or support.

For the purpose of these instructions we will assume that your website is www.your-domain.com and that the support directory will be in your web root, thus your osTicket Awesome installation will be www.your-domain.com/support

Make sure you have PHP installed on your system.

osTicket 1.18 requires PHP 8.1 or 8.2 (the Non-Thread Safe version is recommended for IIS). If PHP is not installed, download the appropriate Non-Thread Safe (NTS) .zip package from windows.php.net/download. You will also need the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015–2022 if it is not already installed.

Extract the PHP .zip to a directory such as C:PHP. Then configure IIS to use PHP by adding a FastCGI handler mapping in IIS Manager. The easiest way to do this is with PHP Manager for IIS, which lets you register the PHP version and enable extensions through a graphical interface.

For a detailed walkthrough with screenshots, see Install PHP with IIS on Windows Server 2025 (RDR-IT) or Install IIS and PHP 8.x on Windows 11 and Server 2025 (4sysops).

Make sure you have MySQL installed on your system.

osTicket requires MySQL 5.5 or higher (MySQL 8.0 is recommended for new installations). If MySQL is not installed, download the MySQL Installer for Windows from dev.mysql.com.

Run the installer, choose Server only (or Developer Default if you also want MySQL Workbench and other tools), and follow the prompts. During setup you will be asked to create a password for the root user. Create a strong password and make a note of it.

Download and extract the latest osTicket Awesome .zip. Put the upload folder in your web root directory. Rename it to support.

Rename includeost-sampleconfig.php to includeost-config.php

Make the ost-config.php file writable

• Windows Explorer

  Right-click on ost-config.php and select Properties

  Go to the Security tab

  Click Edit

  Highlight Users

  Click the check box beside Full Control

  Click OK > OK

• Windows PowerShell
  PowerShell

  icacls includeost-config.php /grant 'Everyone:F'

(Optional) Install additional PHP extensions to increase osTicket performance.

Make sure you have the PHP Manager installed on your system. If not, install it.

1. Open IIS Manager, go to Sites > your-domain.com > click on PHP Manager
2. Under PHP Extensions click on Enable or disable and extension
3. If any of the following are available, enable them:
   • php.imap.dll
   • php.intl.dll
   • php.opcache.dll
4. Locate your php.ini file (e.g. C:PHPphp.ini)
5. Open php.ini as Administrator and add the following line to the very end of the file:
   php.ini

   zend_extension=php_opcache.dll

Create a database using HeidiSQL or MySQL Command Prompt. Create a user for your database.

• HeidiSQL

  If you don’t already have HeidiSQL, download and install it.

  Open the Session Manager

  Click New > Session in root folder > name it osTicket > enter your root password > Open

  Right click on osTicket and select Create new > Database

  Name it osticket_ and click OK

• MySQL Command Prompt

  Open the MySQL Command Prompt by clicking Start > MySQL > MySQL Command Line Client

  Enter your password for the root account

  MySQL Command Prompt

  mysql> create database osticket_;
  mysql> create user 'osticket-user'@'localhost' identified by 'Pa$$w0rd';
  mysql> grant all privileges on osticket_.* to 'osticket-user' identified by 'Pa$$w0rd';
  mysql> flush privileges;
  mysql> exit;

Go to www.your-domain.com/support and follow the prompts to complete the installation

Create your first osTicket administrator account and password

In most cases you will keep the default settings for Table Prefix and Hostname

Enter the Database name you create earlier

Enter the Username and Password you created earlier.

Click Install Now

Remove write access of ost-config.php

• Windows Explorer

  Right-click on includeost-config.php and select Properties

  Go to the Security tab

  Click Edit

  Highlight Users

  Uncheck anything under Permissions > Allow

  Click OK > OK

• Windows PowerShell
  PowerShell

  icacls includeost-config.php /reset

Now take a look at our post-installation tasks