Question

I need to delete a Virtual Directory and Application pool from .NET as part of my uninstall method. I found the following code on the web somewhere:

    private static void DeleteTree(string metabasePath)     {         // metabasePath is of the form 'IIS://<servername>/<path>'         // for example 'IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1/Root/MyVDir'          // or 'IIS://localhost/W3SVC/AppPools/MyAppPool'         Console.WriteLine('Deleting {0}:', metabasePath);          try         {             DirectoryEntry tree = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);             tree.DeleteTree();             tree.CommitChanges();             Console.WriteLine('Done.');         }         catch (DirectoryNotFoundException)         {             Console.WriteLine('Not found.');         }     } 

but it seems to throw a COMException on tree.CommitChanges();. Do I need this line? Is it a correct approach?

Answer 1

If you’re deleting objects such as application pools, virtual directories or IIS applications, you need to do it like this:

string appPoolPath = 'IIS://Localhost/W3SVC/AppPools/MyAppPool'; using(DirectoryEntry appPool = new DirectoryEntry(appPoolPath)) {     using(DirectoryEntry appPools =                 new DirectoryEntry(@'IIS://Localhost/W3SVC/AppPools'))     {         appPools.Children.Remove(appPool);         appPools.CommitChanges();     } } 

You create a DirectoryEntry object for the item you want to delete then create a DirectoryEntry for its parent. You then tell the parent to remove that object.

You can also do this as well:

string appPoolPath = 'IIS://Localhost/W3SVC/AppPools/MyAppPool'; using(DirectoryEntry appPool = new DirectoryEntry(appPoolPath)) {     using(DirectoryEntry parent = appPool.Parent)     {         parent.Children.Remove(appPool);         parent.CommitChanges();     } } 

Depending on the task in hand I’ll use either method.