IIS Application Initialization Quick Reference

1.  Need to install application initialization module, if IIS 7.5 it's a separate download or WPI, included in IIS 8

2. Set startMode to AlwaysRunning on application pool
1. Open configuration editor in IIS on server root
2. Select system.applicationHost/applicationPools
3. Click edit items
4. Find app pool, select and then change startMode in lower pane to alwaysRunning
5. Hit Apply This changes C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config

3. Set applicationDefault preloadEnabled on site
1. Open configuration editor in IIS on server root
2. Select system.applicationHost/sites
3. Click edit items
4. Find site and select
5. Expand applicationDefaults in lower pane
6. change preloadEnabled to true
7. Hit Apply This changes C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config
8. Note: This only changes the defaults for new apps, you may need to change the existing ones yet. You may not need step 3 if apps already exist…

4. Set preloadEnabled on site
1. Open C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config
2. Find site you're looking for <site name="www.domain.com" id=…
3. Add preloadEnabled="true"  to first application element tag
4. You should see a  <applicationDefaults preloadEnabled="true" /> under the site element if you performed step 3
5. Restart IIS

5. Set initalizationPage on site and doAppInitAfterRestart
1. Open configuration editor in IIS on desired site
2. Select system.webServer/applicationInitialization
3. Change from to ApplicationHost.config if you want to create a location element in C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config, otherwise the change will go in the web.config
4. Set doAppInitAfterRestart to true
5. Click edit items
6. Click add
7. Enter path for initializationPage ( /folder/page?param=something ), leave hostname blank (I think…)
8. Click apply

CHANGE IDLE TIME_OUT IN ADVANCED SETTINGS ON APPPOOL TO 0