How do I make Application Warm Up Work on Server 2008 R2 - IIS 7.5? - iis-7.5

Question

I have searched through dozens of posts (most of them are a few years old). I would like to speed up the first load of our app and have not found the correct configuration combination to do so on Server 2008 R2. I have it working well on Server 2012 R2 - IIS 8.5. But we still have some sites on Server 2008 R2. What I have done for Server 2008 R2 is:
Installed 'Application Initialization 1.0 for IIS 7.5' and rebooted
Edited applicationHost.config under applicationPools to add:
'startMode="AlwaysRunning"'
Edited applicationHost.config under sites to add 'preloadEnabled="true"' to application path
Edited my application's web.config file to add 'applicationInitialization doAppInitAfterRestart="true"' under system.WebServer
This seemingly has no effect. What am I missing? FWIW, I am using ApplicationPoolIdentity and have Anonymous & Forms Authentication Enabled and ASP.NET Impersonation, Basic, & Windows Authentication Disabled. Any hints are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

After point 2 I would do the following:
Go to your Server in IIS, then double-click on ConfigurationEditor, then Choose:
1-system.applicationHost/applicationPools->Click on (Collection)-> Choose your Pool->Check if "autoStart" is "true" and validate that startMode is "AlwaysRunning"(already done on your point 2)->Then Close the window->Click on apply
2-system.applicationHost/sites->Click on (Collection)->Now Click on the site you want and turn serviceAutoStart to "true",if your site is inside "Default Web Site" press (Collection) below->Now choose your site->Turn preloadEnabled to "true" and serviceAutoStartEnabled to "true" as well.-> close all and apply.
To test go to your pool restarted it in IIS and check in your task manager that w3wp.exe is using your CPU.After some seconds w3wp.exe will stop using your CPU.

Answer 2

For those like me looking for an answer years after all documentation seems to have been wiped from the internet, this worked for me.
Download and install Application Initialization Module for IIS 7.5 from one of the following links (requires reboot): Link 1 Link 2 Link 3
Edit C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config
Find the configuration\system.applicationHost\applicationPools configuration section
Add autoStart="true" to the application pool used by your web app, so this
<add name="MyCoolAppPool" startMode="AlwaysRunning" enable32BitAppOnWin64="true" managedRuntimeVersion="v4.0" />
becomes this:
<add name="MyCoolAppPool" autoStart="true" startMode="AlwaysRunning" enable32BitAppOnWin64="true" managedRuntimeVersion="v4.0" />
Find the configuration\system.applicationHost\sites\site configuration section
Find the application node for your web app
Add preloadEnabled="true" so the node changes from this
<application path="/UrlPathToMyApp" applicationPool="MyCoolAppPool">
<virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="C:\Virtual Directories\MyCoolApp" />
</application>
to this
<application path="/UrlPathToMyApp" preloadEnabled="true" applicationPool="MyCoolAppPool">
<virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="C:\Virtual Directories\MyCoolApp" />
</application>
Finally, restart IIS.
Rick Strahl explained a hiccup he had to deal with when installing/configuring it: Add AppWarmupModule to <globalModules> like this:
<globalModules>
<add name="AppWarmupModule" image="%SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\warmup.dll" />
</globalModules>