What does 'IISReset' do?

Question

On IIS 6, what does an IIS reset do?

Please compare to recycling an app pool and stopping and starting an ASP.NET web site.

If you replace a DLL or edit/rep

Answer 1

IISReset stops and restarts the entire web server (including non-ASP.NET apps)
Recycling an app pool will only affect applications running in that app pool.
Editing the web.config in a web application only affects that web application (recycles just that app).
Editing the machine.config on the machine will recycle all app pools running.

IIS will monitor the /bin directory of your application. Whenever a change is detected in those dlls, it will recycle the app and re-load those new dlls. It also monitors the web.config & machine.config in the same way and performs the same action for the applicable apps.