The following helps in cases when you get the following error messages:

"Deployment manifest requires publisher and product specified" or "files missing from deployment"

Here's what I needed to do on my Win Server 2003:

1. Open RegEdit (back up your registry always before changing stuff!!) and browse to the key:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion 
      - Add/Change RegisteredOrganization to your company name.

2. You need to enable your IIS server to send out .manifest files. Add ".manifest" to the MIME types of IIS by right clicking on your IIS server node and selecting "MIME types". Then click "New" and add ".manifest" for the extension and ".Net manifest file" for the description.

[Update: Denny makes a good point by saying that you should probably only do this for the specific virtual folder you are deploying to instead of the whole IIS. Do this by right clicking on the folder and select properties. Then select the "HTTP headers" tab and click "MIME types" on the bottom of the dialog.]

Now you can publish your apps and test it locally on your own machine.