How to enable Directory browsing by default on IIS Express

Question

Cassini (Visual Studio development web server) by default enables directory browsing, how can I enable directory browsing on IIS Express by default? (I don't want to have a separate configuration for each project I have?

Answer 1

1. Go to Web.config file of your project.

2. Add the below two tags in <system.webServer> tag in web.config

<directoryBrowse enabled="true" />

<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />

Answer 2

You should be able to use AppCmd.exe to manage IIS Express. Try this:

appcmd set config /section:directoryBrowse /enabled:true

More info on AppCmd.exe here: http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/114/getting-started-with-appcmdexe

Answer 3

you can use appcmd tool

APPCMD (command) (object-type) <identifier> < /parameter1:value1 ... >*

Where is one of the commands supported by .Most objects support this basic set of commands:

LIST Display the objects on the machine. An optional can specify a unique object to list, or one or more parameters can be specified to match against object properties.

ADD Create a new object with the specified object properties to set during creation.

DELETE Delete the object specified by the .

SET Set parameters on the object specified by .

Enable directory browsing.

Go to the IIS Express install directory.

1: Enable directory browsing at the server level

Run `appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/directoryBrowse /enabled:true`

2: Enable directory browsing at the site level

Run `appcmd set config ["SITE_NAME"] /section:system.webServer/directoryBrowse /enabled:true`

Note : Run with elevated permission

you can verify that the configuration/system.webServer/directoryBrowse@enabled attribute is set to true in the site or application configuration file.

Reference : IIS

Answer 4

for those coming across this years later: directory browsing can also be enabled via IIS Manager: