[SOLVED] Atahualpa & IIS: ISAPI_rewrite

I am mid process setting up WordPress, Atahualpa, etc. on ...XP Pro and IIS 5.1.

(The reason i am using this environment is (a) I am trying to build the site locally as a learning process and THEN push it to my host who (b) is setup for IIS only -- he will host it for free until volume kicks in, then I'll have to move it, so I can't complain about his not serving up Apache.)

Let me tell you that technical advice on setting up WordPress on IIS 5.1 is nearly non-existent. There is a bit, here and there. The one article I did find mentions having to add the ISAPI_rewrite snap-in to IIS to get clean URLs (i.e. the equivalent of Permalinks). The "however" is, the article was written in January 2006. (I can send the link to it if you wish.)

My question is: do I still need to add ISAPI_rewrite to run Atahualpa on IIS 5.1 (and higher)? Or has the technology moved on beyond this "ancient" article.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I did find some articles on setting WebPress up on IIS 6 and Server 2003 but they're from 2007 and I'm not sure how valid they are either.

P.S.S. As I figure this out I will be documenting and posting a "workable" How-To, so all help will be appreciated.