title: Host Static Website with IIS Express
body: <p>Is it possible to host just static files on IISExpress without a web.config?</p>
  
  <p>I have a html5 Application Prototype (no serverside code) and I would like to host the website on IISExpress Webserver because there are a few json files simulating a REST-API which I access with AJAX.</p>
  
  <p>There is a main.html file and some api/data.json files. </p>
  
  <p>When Im creating a VS-Project everything works fine. </p>
  
  <p>I delete all config and VS-related files and added the site manually with </p>
  
  <pre><code>appcmd add site /name:"HTMLStandalone" /bindings:http/*:56668 /physicalPath:"C:\Users\me\somefoler\myapp"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>UPDATE: works fine, it results in the following entry in the applicationhost.config</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;site name="HTMLStandalone" id="4"&gt;
                  &lt;application path="/"&gt;
                      &lt;virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="C:\Users\me\somefolder\myapp" /&gt;
                  &lt;/application&gt;
                  &lt;bindings&gt;
                      &lt;binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:56668" /&gt;
                  &lt;/bindings&gt;
              &lt;/site&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>when I start the site</p>
  
  <pre><code> iisexpress.exe /site:HTMLStandalone
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the process fails:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Failed to translate binding to url prefix *:56668
  Registration completed for site "HTMLStandalone"
  Failed to process sites
  Report ListenerChannel stopped due to failure; ProtocolId:http, ListenerChannelI
  d:0
  HostableWebCore activation failed.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is it possible to host just static files without a web.config?</p>