After installing WordPress on our Windows Server 2012, we encountered a quite strange behavior. We can’t install new plugins or update our WordPress version, it always ends up with error: 'Download failed: Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable'. For example when we want to update the WodPress version:

Update WordPress

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.5.1-partial-0.zip…

Download failed.: Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable.

Installation Failed

Eventually, we started to do some research on this issue. In this article, we’ll try to give an overview of this issue, explaining why this occurs on Windows and how to solve this.

About ASPHostPortal.com

ASPHostPortal.com is Microsoft No #1 Recommended Windows and ASP.NET Spotlight Hosting Partner in United States. Microsoft presents this award to ASPHostPortal.com for ability to support the latest Microsoft and ASP.NET technology, such as: WebMatrix, WebDeploy, Visual Studio 2012, ASP.NET 4.5, ASP.NET MVC 4.0, Silverlight 5 and Visual Studio Lightswitch. Click here for more information

We found that the source of the error is WordPress need to access the system’s default temp folder (C:\Windows\temp) before installing a new plugin or update its version, and IIS user doesn’t have the write and read permission to that folder.

So what we need to do is:

1.       Create a temp folder in our site root directory and give IIS user the write and read permission to this folder.

2.       Change the default temp directory WordPress uses by adding this line to your wp-config.php:

         define('WP_TEMP_DIR','/path-to-the-folder-we-just-made');

Now we won’t those errors when we want to install plugin or update our WordPress because it already have the permission to access the temp directory.

Parallels officially launched Parallels Plesk Panel 11, the latest version of its web hosting control panel software.

About ASPHostPortal.com

ASPHostPortal.com is Microsoft No #1 Recommended Windows and ASP.NET Spotlight Hosting Partner in United States. Microsoft presents this award to ASPHostPortal.com for ability to support the latest Microsoft and ASP.NET technology, such as: WebMatrix, WebDeploy, Visual Studio 2012, ASP.NET 4.5, ASP.NET MVC 4.0, Silverlight 5 and Visual Studio Lightswitch. Click here for more information

Web hosting software provider Parallels announced on Tuesday it officially launched Parallels Plesk Panel 11, the latest version of its web hosting control panel software, which adds many benefits for web hosts including improvements in website performance and security.

The move comes a couple months after the latest version of Parallels Automation became generally available, giving its web hosting partners a lot more options when it comes to offering services to small and medium-sized business customers.

The new version of Parallels Plesk Panel features over 80 improvements that were made based on customer feedback and Parallels’ vision for the hosting and cloud industries.

New features include the latest web technologies and faster performance in dedicated and virtualized environments, the addition of enhanced web presence tools, and free priority support for those web hosts who select the premium Plesk Unlimited dedicated license.

Parallels Plesk Panel 11 includes enhancements in key feature areas to help web hosting providers and web designers to simplify their business operations, lower their costs and drive more revenue.

These features include better server performance with NGINX so that Linux users can now reduce their CPU and memory usage by up to 50 percent, through the use of the NGINX server in Parallels Plesk Panel 11.

The NGINX server is installed and configured automatically in Parallels Plesk Panel 11, which accelerates website access and application response times beyond what is available in default Apache Web servers.

Parallels Plesk Panel 11 also includes a new Parallels Web Presence Builder that offers a more intuitive website building tool for small businesses and novice users, enabling web hosts to differentiate itself in a competitive market with self-service design tools for their SMB customers.

Parallels Web Presence Builder includes drag-and-drop modules that let users customize their website content, and automatically update their Facebook pages to mirror the content and aesthetic of their website.

For web designers, Parallels Web Presence Builder can also be sold as an entry-level website building tool, which can later be leveraged to upsell customers to more advanced, custom site designs.

There are also many new free support options that focus on the specific needs of hosting providers and web designers who rely on Parallels Plesk Panel to run their online businesses.

“There is a set of add-on functionality that is going to be shipped with Plesk,” Adam Bogobowicz, senior director of product marketing at Parallels, said in a phone interview. “One of the collections of functions is Powerpack, and it gives you the ability to build mobile websites, provides you with improved security for your server, gives you a set of developer tools. The other is improved performance of the website — both the traditional website and the mobile website. Plesk Panel 11 is going to be the most secure version of Plesk Panel ever released. It’s definitely going to make harden and make the operations of the panel more secure for all web hosts.”

Customers with business-critical needs who purchase an Unlimited dedicated Plesk SKU license will now receive free support by email, while those customers who purchase Unlimited dedicated Plesk SKU with Parallels Plesk Power Pack will receive free premium support.

Parallels has partnered with Unity Mobile to improve the overall performance for mobile websites. Parallels Plesk Panel users can now take existing websites and render them for optimized viewing and browsing from any mobile device.

Parallels Pleask Panel 11 offers improved security over previous versions, including enhanced server security and password storage and encryption to avoid potential vulnerabilities. Additionally, security updates are now highly visible and easier to apply in Parallels Plesk Panel 11.

Many of the new features and enhancements in Parallels Plesk Panel 11 focus on innovation and support for the newest Web technologies, including support the latest operating systems such as openSUSE 12.1, Ubuntu 12.04, and Debian 6, full support for IPv6, both the Linux and Windows Server platforms, and Microsoft’s WebMatrix Web development tool.

The Parallels Plesk Panel 11 user interface is now customizable, and can be simplified or extended based on the needs and the technical responsibilities of the user.

Hosted application support is included through the use of the APS v1.2, allowing APS packaged applications to be easily deployed on Parallels Plesk Panel servers.

A new Software Development Kit is provided to create Parallels Plesk Panel extensions in both Linux and Windows Server, allowing ISVs and Web developers to customize and extend the functionality of Parallels Plesk Panel 11.

Parallels has partnered with over 60 web hosting providers to offer Parallels Plesk Panel 11 including 123-Reg, Cirrus Hosing, Go Daddy, Host Gator, HostDime, LeaseWeb, Media Temple, PacHosting, SoftLayer, Superb Internet, and Webfusion.

In March, Parallels product manager Blake Tyra recently gave a demo of the Parallels Plesk Panel, where he showcased some of its functions for hosting providers, server administrators and small business operators.

Cloud computing is a disruptive technology that is changing the way enterprises look to meet their IT hardware and software requirements. Cloud computing is a mix of the latest ideas, technology and delivery models including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS), and other models in the IT sector that use the Internet for delivering services to the user. Users can access infrastructure namely, the servers, software, and data center space or network equipment; the required computing platform and solution stack for a building an application, covering the cycle of development, testing, deployment, hosting and maintenance; and also most of the regular software applications; these are all provided cheaply and efficiently over the Internet.

About ASPHostPortal.com

ASPHostPortal.com is Microsoft No #1 Recommended Windows and ASP.NET Spotlight Hosting Partner in United States. Microsoft presents this award to ASPHostPortal.com for ability to support the latest Microsoft and ASP.NET technology, such as: WebMatrix, WebDeploy, Visual Studio 2012, ASP.NET 4.5, ASP.NET MVC 4.0, Silverlight 5 and Visual Studio Lightswitch. Click here for more information

Some of the benefits of the Cloud are listed below:

Decreased Costs: The Cloud eliminates the need for each user to invest in stand-alone servers or software that is capital intensive, but under-utilized most of the time. As technological innovations take place, these resources become obsolete and must be replaced with the latest in order to ensure operational efficiency – requiring more capital investment – and the cycle repeats. The Cloud eliminates the need for such ‘replacement’ capital expenditure.
Many users share a Cloud leading to distributed costs and economies of scale as resources including real estate, bandwidth, and power, are centralized. The enterprise also saves on overheads such as management costs, data storage costs, costs of software updates, and quality control and is able to use Cloud services at economical rates.

Scalability and Speed: Enterprises no longer have to invest time in buying and setting up the hardware, software and other resources necessary for a new application. They can quickly scale up or scale down their usage of services on the Cloud as per market demands, during hours of maximum activity, while launching sales campaigns, etc. Cloud services are most usually reliable, since many service providers have data centers in multiple locations for keeping the processing near users.

Innovation: Enterprises can focus on innovation, as they do not have to own or manage resources. Cloud computing facilitates faster prototype development, testing and validation. Research and development projects or activities where users have to collaborate for a task/project are especially benefited.

Convenience: Sharing of infrastructure and costs ensures low overheads and immediate availability of services. Payments are billed on the basis of actual consumption only. Details of billing are made available by the service provider also serves to check costs.
Other than an Internet-connected device, special equipment or specially-trained manpower is not needed. One-off tasks can be performed on the Cloud. High-speed bandwidth ensures real-time response from infrastructure located at different sites.

Location Independence: Service providers can set up infrastructure in areas with lower overheads and pass on the benefit. They can set up multiple redundant sites to facilitate business continuity and disaster recovery. This helps the enterprise cut costs further.

Optimal Resource Utilization: Servers, storage and network resources are better utilized as the Cloud is shared by multiple users, thus cutting down on waste at a global level. Cloud computing is more environment-friendly and energy efficient. Down-time is cut and optimization of resources across enterprises on the Cloud is achieved.

Flexibility: Users can opt out at will and thus gain a high level of operational flexibility.  The services are covered by service level agreements and the service provider is required to pay a penalty if the quality agreed to is not provided.

Device Independence: Applications provided through the Cloud can be accessed from any device – a computer, a smartphone, an iPad, etc. Any device that has access to the Internet can leverage the power of the Cloud.