Does IIS Express respect the user set in the processModel of the applicationPool?

Question

We are using IIS Express to launch a web-site, but it is using the credentials of the user who launches it, rather than the credentials set in the app pool process model.

The relevant sections of my IIS Express applicationHost.config are as follows:

<system.applicationHost>
    <applicationPools>
        <add name="MyAppPool">
            <processModel identityType="SpecificUser" userName="MYDOMAIN\ServiceAccount" password="MyPassword" />
        </add>
    </applicationPools>

    <sites>
        <site name="MyWebsite" id="2">
            <application path="/" applicationPool= "MyAppPool">
                <virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="c:\path\to\my\website" />
            </application>
            <bindings>
                <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:80:MyWebsite" />
            </bindings>
            <traceFailedRequestsLogging enabled="true" />
        </site>
    </sites>
</system.applicationHost>

And I launch IIS Express with the following command line:

iisexpress.exe /apppool:MyAppPool /config:c:\path\applicationHost.config

Is this a documented limitation of IIS Express, or have I got my config wrong? If it is a limitation, please supply a link to the documentation in your answer.

Answer 1

IIS Express ignores process model credentails and that's by design. Only way you could run IIS Express as as specific user is to use "runas" command and launch iisexpress.exe with specific user identity.