Automating Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Administration with Windows PowerShell® 2.0

Configure Application Pools

Every Web Application, whether it is meant to support SharePoint or not, uses what is known as an Application Pool for process isolation. Application Pools are logicalrepresentations of a physical Windows worker process called w3wp.exe. These processes are responsible for the execution of all server-side code associated with the Application Pool (either via a Web Application or a Virtual Application that is a folder under a Web Application with its own Application Pool settings).

You can configure how the w3wp.exe worker process behaves by altering properties on the Application Pool. For example, you can configure the process to shut down on a schedule or based on lack of usage, thus freeing up memory. When viewed ...