What a bummer.  I had been working on a desktop application that uses ASP.NET to drive DHTML UI, but I just found out that ASP.NET is supported on following platforms only:

• Windows 2000 Professional/Server
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows 2003 Server family

That leaves out Windows 9x, Me, and XP Home which make up about 50% of all desktop platforms out there.  Admittedly, these platforms don't have IIS installed, but I am using Cassini, a small web server, to host ASP.NET.  Everyone can forget about writing UPP, PersonalWebProxy, or what-ever-you-call-it using ASP.NET.

Unless I find a reasonable workaround, I'll have to port everything I have written so far over to either Python or Java.  At this point, I am leaning heavier toward Python because it has tight interoperability with COM and Win32 via PythonCom and PythonWin.  Damn.