How to initialize an Asp.Net application before it receives its “first hit”?

On some occasions, you wish to initialize your Asp.net application even before it receives its first hit to get rid of any over heads like creating application domain, initializing the .net runtime environment etc.. To achieve this you can use aspnet_compiler to pre-compile ‘in-place’, so that in effect the application is primed. Compiling ‘in-place’ the behavior of making multiple requests to the application, thus causing regular compilation.

// The following command compiles the "MyWebSite" Asp.Net application in place.

Aspnet_compiler -v /MyWebSite

The ASP.NET Compilation tool (Aspnet_compiler.exe) enables you to compile an ASP.NET Web application, either in place or for deployment to a target location such as a production server. In-place compilation helps application performance because end users do not encounter a delay on the first request to the application while the application is compiled. For more information on Asp.Net compilation tool refer to the MSDN article here.