In the beginning, some c/p from IIS site:
IIS Application Warm-Up for IIS 7.5 enables IT Professionals to improve the responsiveness of their Web sites by loading the Web applications before the first request arrives. By proactively loading and initializing all the dependencies such as database connections, compilation of ASP.NET code, and loading of modules, IT Professionals can ensure their Web sites are responsive at all times even if their Web sites use a custom request pipeline or if the Application Pool is recycled.
Now, ME!
At first glimse you can say : “WOW” this extension rocks!!! I dont have to wait for my application to compile! My site will load much much faster!
And, imagine, you would be completely RIGHT! This is a great extension, but ( yeah, there’s a but ), I would NEVER install this extension on a shared hosting server! Why you ask?
Biggest reason is the WASTE of resources!
By preloading some site that has 5-10 unique visitors/day ( yes there are sites like that ), you are efectively wasting resources on the server. Imagine what would happen if you had around 500-600 applications on the server, all preloaded? How much RAM would the machine need to have to keep all those applications preloaded? I guess the answer is : A LOT!
So, conclusion, when to use IIS Application Warm-Up?
Use it on your own machine! When you have a dedicated machine just for 1-2 websites. You, and your users will benefit from preloaded applications. Everything will open more faster!
If you have a shared hosting machine, MY reccomendation is to NOT use the IIS Application Warm-Up extension!
