Windows IIS Server, and Office file mime types (ugh)

Had some troubles with Office 2007 files not being downloadable on our windows servers … did a bit of Googling and found this nice list of Office 2007 mime-types:

.docm,application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12 .docx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document .dotm,application/vnd.ms-word.template.macroEnabled.12 .dotx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template .potm,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.template.macroEnabled.12 .potx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.template .ppam,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.addin.macroEnabled.12 .ppsm,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.slideshow.macroEnabled.12 .ppsx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.slideshow .pptm,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.presentation.macroEnabled.12 .pptx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation .xlam,application/vnd.ms-excel.addin.macroEnabled.12 .xlsb,application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.binary.macroEnabled.12 .xlsm,application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12 .xlsx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet .xltm,application/vnd.ms-excel.template.macroEnabled.12 .xltx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.template

Adding all mime-types to IIS in one step is very simple:

The easiest way to do this is stopping IIS and editing the metabase XML file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\MetaBase.xml) using a text editor. Search for the <IIsMimeMap Location="/LM/MimeMap" …> element and append the lines above to the MimeMap attribute

 

(from Bram Van Damme, http://www.bram.us/2007/05/25/office-2007-mime-types-for-iis/)

I see all this, but quite candidly, after futzing with Windows IIS for about 40 minutes earlier today I'm having better cross-platform (on the client) success with application/octet-stream instead. This just sends the file to the client, which works out what kind of file it is by itself and then treats it appropriately. So...

.docx,application/octet-stream 
.xlsx,application/octet-stream 
.pptx,application/octet-stream  

that's all I added to this IIS Server's metabase config. Just in case that helps you somewhere.

#ThisIsBroken Why not also cover the cup dispenser sign, and remove the cup dispenser? This is just confusing

I saw this on a flight back in January this year (2010). It struck me as so broken that a photo was warranted. Two days ago I stumbled upon Seth Godin's "This Is Broken" video from TED, http://on.ted.com/8YqB that didn't quite start it all, but certainly brought it to the forefront for most (as usual with Seth).

Sometimes I wish Seth would re-activate http://thisisbroken.com. The Flickr photo pool is ok, but just not as good.