Free Windows Hosting Control Panel – Install SolidCP on Windows Server 2025
In this guide, we’re going to look at Windows Web Hosting and, in particular, how to install SolidCP on a Windows Server 2025 VPS. Hosting websites on Windows servers isn’t that popular anymore. However, some applications need services like ASP to function, and that is where Windows hosting comes into play. There are not many Windows control panels. Plesk is compatible with Windows servers, but that is a subscription. So, we’ve got ourselves a copy of SolidCP for Windows, and we will install SolidCP on our Windows Server 2025 VPS soon.
Quick Links
Helm Control Panel
But, before that. Does anyone remember Helm? It was a control panel for Windows Web Hosting that was used many years ago. It was bought by Plesk and then abandoned.
We were recently talking about how nice the control panel was within this software. It’s where a lot of often free software let’s down the experience. Helm wasn’t free, but it was visually pleasing.
Unfortunately, we were unable to find a copy of Helm 3 or Helm 4 to see if it still worked, even for a test environment. Having also asked CoPilot, who also seemed to share our nostalgia,
Ah, Helm Control Panel—now that’s a blast from the past! Helm was a Windows-based web hosting control panel developed by WebHost Automation Ltd. It was widely used for managing shared and reseller hosting on Windows servers, offering features like automated billing, domain registration, and multi-level reseller support.
OK. Nostalgia over. Let’s get on and install SolidCP and configure a website using Windows Web Hosting.
Prepare To Install SolidCP on Windows Server 2025
To install SolidCP you will want a Windows VPS with at least 50GB of space and 5GB of RAM. You can add further space to SolidCP servers later on, so it’s always advisable to get an additional disk and store website data on the additional disk. First, install the correct roles.
Windows Server Roles
On your Windows Server 2025 desktop, in the server manager, navigate to Add/Remove roles. You need to install the “Web Server” and “Application Development” roles as shown in the image below.
Click through all of the options and proceed to install the roles. After this is completed, you need to install SQL and SSMS.
- We’ve used a copy of SQL Express, which is fine for use with SolidCP.
- Next, install a copy of SQL Server Management Studio.
Once SQL is installed, we must enable Mixed Mode Authentication. Without this change, we won’t be able to install SolidCP.
Enable Mixed Mode Authentication in SQL Server
- Open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
- Connect to your SQL Server instance.
- Right-click on the server name (at the top of Object Explorer) and select Properties.
- In the Server Properties window, go to the Security page.
- Under Server Authentication, select SQL Server and Windows Authentication Mode.
- Click OK to apply the changes.
- Restart SQL Server for the new authentication mode to take effect.
Install SolidCP on Windows Server 2025
Now that the groundwork has been prepared, the installation of SolidCP should proceed without any issues. From your desktop, navigate to Downloads – SolidCP and download the latest version. Double-click the installer. You want to install the Standalone version, which installs everything you need.
When you get to the SQL Database section, choose a database name and click next, ensuring you are using “Windows Authentication”. SolidCP will see that SQL Express is installed and create a database for you. At this stage, if you didn’t enable “Mixed Mode Authentication”, you will see an error and won’t be able to proceed.
During the install process, you will be asked to enter a hostname. It’s important that the hostname you enter here has the appropriate A record in place. Without this, you won’t be able to log in to the SolidCP control panel. Once the installation is completed, you will see a confirmation message.
Access SolidCP
Access the control panel for SolidCP using the username systemadmin and the password you specified during the install of SolidCP. The default login URL is the hostname you specified and port 9001. For example;
- http://solidcp.f2hcloud.com:9001/
Using the systemadmin account, you can quickly add a domain to SolidCP. Navigate to “Customers” and then click the “admin” user. In the “Domains” page, add the domain you would like to use with your SolidCP server. Assuming the domain is pointed to the IP address of your SolidCP server. You will see the default IIS Web Page.
Alright. We’ve installed a free Windows Server 2025 control panel called SolidCP and set up a domain that is resolving from the Windows Server. In a future guide, we will take a more in-depth look at SolidCP. If you have any comments (Especially about Helm), leave a comment below.
