I noticed recently IISExpress & My Web Sites folders are getting added to the My Documents folder on my Windows 7 machine. I recently installed VS2012, so I'm guessing that's the culprit, but I haven't been able to find anything on line that explains how to change these defaults, if possible.
Closing IIS Express By default Visual Studio places the IISExpress icon in your system tray at the lower right hand side of your screen, by the clock. You can right click it and choose exit. If you don't see the icon, try clicking the small arrow to view the full list of icons in the system tray.
IIS Express runs as your user account. When installed, you should find an IISExpress folder in your My Documents folder.
IIS Express is a lightweight, self-contained version of IIS optimized for developers. IIS Express makes it easy to use the most current version of IIS to develop and test websites.
This file is located in the %userprofile%\Documents\IISExpress\config folder or %userprofile%\My Documents\IISExpress\config folder, depending on your OS. When you run a site from a configuration file, you can specify which site to run.
Microsoft cluttering up my 'Documents' folder with all their programs' (junk) folders drives me insane as well. I have conceded somewhat by creating a Data
folder under my Documents
folder, where I am pointing all MS apps (and others apps such as Firefox's profile folder) to for all their (generally unwanted) folders, and with a subfolder created for each program/suite. At least this way I can easily back up all settings when I back up my 'Documents' folders.
Anyway, VS2012 installs IIS Express, which is what is causing these folders to be created. I have found two solutions for dealing with the unwanted folders.
Uninstall IIS Express. You can do this from the normal Windows 'Uninstall a Program' part of Control Panel.
Change the folder location that IIS Express uses, as follows. Be warned: anyone doing this risks causing problems with their computer if you don't know what you are doing, so you do so at your own risk. Please make appropriate backups along the way as well too!
a) Close Visual Studio.
b) Create a new folder for the IIS Express sub-folders:
eg. D:\My Documents\Data\Microsoft\IISExpress
c) Move the existing unwanted IISExpress subfolders (config, Logs, TraceLogFiles
) from your My Documents > IISExpress
folder to the folder created in step b).
d) Create a new folder for the My Web Sites
folder, I suggest also under the folder created in step b).
eg. D:\My Documents\Data\Microsoft\IISExpress\Websites
Under this folder, create a website for the default IIS Express website (in case it "auto-magically" reappears it's ugly head again later on).
eg. D:\My Documents\Data\Microsoft\IISExpress\Websites\Default
e) Go to the newly located config
folder at:
eg. D:\My Documents\Data\Microsoft\IISExpress\config
, and:
i. Open the file applicationhost.config
in your text editor (eg. Notepad).
ii. Find the node sites > site > application path > virtualDirectory path
for WebSite1, and change the physicalPath
value from %IIS_SITES_HOME%\WebSite1
to the IIS Express default website folder you created in step d).
Eg. %IIS_SITES_HOME%\Websites\Default
.
Note that %IIS_SITES_HOME%
points to your 'Documents' folder (this appears to be a "feature" of IIS Express, I can't find a way to change it, and it appears to be auto-configured when IIS Express starts up, which it does by using the applicationhost.config
file).
Do the same for any other sites created by IIS Express.
f) Create a new registry entry pointing IIS Express to the new folders you created (partly explained by MS here: http://www.iis.net/learn/extensions/introduction-to-iis-express/iis-80-express-readme). FYI the registry key doesn't previously exist, as IIS Express uses a default of my Documents
unless this key exists:
i. Open the Windows 'Run' box, eg. (Windows Key) + R
ii. Type regedit
iii. Navigate to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft
iv. *Right click* the Microsoft
key (that you have just navigated to), and choose: New > Key
v. Type IISExpress
vi. *Right click* the IISExpress
key that you have just created, and choose: New > String Value
vii. Type CustomUserHome
, and hit the Enter
key to save it.
viii. Double-click the CustomUserHome
string to enter a value for it, and for the Value Data:
field, type in the path to the new IIS Express folder you created in step b), for example: D:\My Documents\Data\Microsoft\IISExpress
. Press OK, and you can now close the Registry Editor.
g) Reopen Visual Studio, and it should start using the new folders, as well as not create the folders in your Documents
folder anymore. Yay!!!!!
FYI, when I did this all, I actually did it in a slightly different order (creating the registry key first), but this order was the easiest way to explain it all. Whether you create the key first or last shouldn't matter, as long as you do all the steps. Good luck!
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With