Profile under C:\Users\ "websitename" after IIS website when opened from localhost\websitename

Question

I have a website under C:\inetpub\wwwroot\websitename. If I open it (any browser), Windows creates a user called "websitename" under C:\Users, C:\Users\websitename.

That becomes the actual ACTIVE profile, breaking, well, basically everything.

The user is created in the registry as well here:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-82-1552494301-1869227342-3327666674-1719597003-3231809566

with a path added: C:\Users\websitename

I have never encountered this before.

Anyone seen this and have a resolution? IIS 10 on Windows 10 Pro.

Answer 1

Most likely, this is because you did not specify an existing application pool (such as DefaultAppPool) when adding the site. At this time, when you add a site, it will automatically add a new application pool by default（with the same name as your sitename）, and it contains the property LoadUserProfile=true.

So this is the main reason why this problem occurs in this case.

If you want to avoid this phenomenon, you can create an application pool first, and set its property LoadUserProfile=false before adding the site, or use an existing application pool.

And you can find the corresponding description in the official documentation: Application Pool Identities - User profile