Best lightweight web server (only static content) for Windows [closed]

You can use Python as a quick way to host static content. On Windows, there are many options for running Python, I've personally used CygWin and ActivePython.

To use Python as a simple HTTP server just change your working directory to the folder with your static content and type python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000, everything in the directory will be available at http:/localhost:8000/

Python 3

To do this with Python, 3.4.1 (and probably other versions of Python 3), use the http.server module:

python -m http.server <PORT>
# or possibly:
python3 -m http.server <PORT>

# example:
python -m http.server 8080

On Windows:

py -m http.server <PORT>

Have a look at mongoose:

  • single executable
  • very small memory footprint
  • allows multiple worker threads
  • easy to install as service
  • configurable with a configuration file if required

The smallest one I know is lighttpd.

Security, speed, compliance, and flexibility -- all of these describe lighttpd (pron. lighty) which is rapidly redefining efficiency of a webserver; as it is designed and optimized for high performance environments. With a small memory footprint compared to other web-servers, effective management of the cpu-load, and advanced feature set (FastCGI, SCGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) lighttpd is the perfect solution for every server that is suffering load problems. And best of all it's Open Source licensed under the revised BSD license.

  • Main site: http://www.lighttpd.net/

Edit: removed Windows version link, now a spam/malware plugin site.