PowerShell IIS Application pools list

Quick reference for listing the sites and application pools configured on an IIS server from PowerShell — useful for server inventories, migration planning, and “why is this pool set to AlwaysRunning?” archaeology. The original 2018 one-liner still works; the modern IISAdministration module is below it.

The classic WebAdministration way

Import-Module WebAdministration
dir IIS:\Sites # Lists all sites
dir IIS:\AppPools # Lists all app pools and applications

# List all sites, applications and appPools
dir IIS:\Sites | ForEach-Object {
  # Web site name
  $_.Name
  # Site's app pool
  $_.applicationPool
  # Any web applications on the site + their app pools
  Get-WebApplication -Site $_.Name
}

The IIS: drive and cmdlets above come from the WebAdministration module. It still ships with IIS and remains fine for quick inspections.

The modern way: IISAdministration (IIS 10+)

Since IIS 10, the recommended module is IISAdministration. Instead of driving through the IIS: provider, it returns objects that pipeline cleanly:

Import-Module IISAdministration

# All application pools - default view shows name, state, CLR version, pipeline mode
Get-IISAppPool

# Just the state of one pool
(Get-IISAppPool "DefaultAppPool").State

# Recycle it when needed
(Get-IISAppPool "DefaultAppPool").Recycle()

For the site-to-pool mapping, WebAdministration’s Get-Website and Get-WebApplication are still the quickest route:

Import-Module WebAdministration

# Site name, state and its application pool
Get-Website | Select-Object Name, State, applicationPool

# Web applications under a specific site, with their pools
Get-WebApplication -Site "Default Web Site" | Select-Object path, applicationPool

Which module should you use?

• WebAdministration — IIS 7.5+, provider-based (IIS: drive), available everywhere, good for ad-hoc queries.
• IISAdministration — IIS 10+, object-based, pipeline-friendly, officially recommended for new scripts.

Both modules require the IIS Management Scripts and Tools feature and an elevated session on the server (or a remoting session to it). Cmdlet references: Get-IISAppPool, WebAdministration module, IISAdministration module.