Creating a new website on IIS: Application vs. Virtual Directory. Whats the difference?

Question

When you create a new website on IIS, you get to choose between an \"Application\" and a \"Virtual Directory\". What is the difference between those two options?

Answer 1

There are a few differences, here are the biggest:

• In IIS 6 and up, you can assign an application a certain "protection" level. (e.g. protection levels, application pools, etc). You can't do this with Virtual Directories
• If you are working with ASP.NET, the search for the master "Web.config" file for your application stops at your application level. For a working directory it will actually check your parent hierarchy for settings as well.

These are the two biggest differences in my opinion, although there are other small ones as well.