IIS and AppCmd management tip: list available configuration sections

Both the IIS web server and ASP.NET web applications allow numerous configuration parameters to be configured. This is great, but can be a little overwhelming, especially if you don't know which setting to change.

Here's a quick tip to help solving this mystery: let IIS list all the configuration sections it is aware of. This can be done using the AppCmd command.

First, open the Windows Command Prompt as an administrator, and then navigate (with the CD command) to the directory "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv". Then, run the following command:

appcmd list config -section:?

This will list all the known sections. Here's a dump in alphabetical order:

administrators
administratorsProviders
appSettings
configPaths
configProtectedData
configurationRedirection
connectionStrings
moduleProviders
modules
system.applicationHost/applicationPools
system.applicationHost/configHistory
system.applicationHost/customMetadata
system.applicationHost/listenerAdapters
system.applicationHost/log
system.applicationHost/serviceAutoStartProviders
system.applicationHost/sites
system.applicationHost/webLimits
system.codedom
system.data
system.diagnostics
system.ftpServer/caching
system.ftpServer/firewallSupport
system.ftpServer/log
system.ftpServer/providerDefinitions
system.ftpServer/security/authentication
system.ftpServer/security/authorization
system.ftpServer/security/ipSecurity
system.ftpServer/security/requestFiltering
system.ftpServer/serverRuntime
system.net/authenticationModules
system.net/connectionManagement
system.net/defaultProxy
system.net/mailSettings/smtp
system.net/requestCaching
system.net/settings
system.net/webRequestModules
system.transactions/defaultSettings
system.transactions/machineSettings
system.web/anonymousIdentification
system.web/authentication
system.web/authorization
system.web/browserCaps
system.web/caching/cache
system.web/caching/outputCache
system.web/caching/outputCacheSettings
system.web/caching/sqlCacheDependency
system.web/clientTarget
system.web/compilation
system.web/customErrors
system.web/deployment
system.web/deviceFilters
system.web/fullTrustAssemblies
system.web/globalization
system.web/healthMonitoring
system.web/hostingEnvironment
system.web/httpCookies
system.web/httpHandlers
system.web/httpModules
system.web/httpRuntime
system.web/identity
system.web/machineKey
system.web/membership
system.web/mobileControls
system.web/pages
system.web/partialTrustVisibleAssemblies
system.web/processModel
system.web/profile
system.web/protocols
system.web/roleManager
system.web/securityPolicy
system.web/sessionPageState
system.web/sessionState
system.web/siteMap
system.web/trace
system.web/trust
system.web/urlMappings
system.web/webControls
system.web/webParts
system.web/webServices
system.web/xhtmlConformance
system.webServer/applicationInitialization
system.webServer/asp
system.webServer/caching
system.webServer/cgi
system.webServer/defaultDocument
system.webServer/directoryBrowse
system.webServer/fastCgi
system.webServer/globalModules
system.webServer/handlers
system.webServer/httpCompression
system.webServer/httpErrors
system.webServer/httpLogging
system.webServer/httpProtocol
system.webServer/httpRedirect
system.webServer/httpTracing
system.webServer/isapiFilters
system.webServer/management/authentication
system.webServer/management/authorization
system.webServer/management/trustedProviders
system.webServer/modules
system.webServer/odbcLogging
system.webServer/security/access
system.webServer/security/applicationDependencies
system.webServer/security/authentication/anonymousAuthentication
system.webServer/security/authentication/basicAuthentication
system.webServer/security/authentication/clientCertificateMappingAuthentication
system.webServer/security/authentication/digestAuthentication
system.webServer/security/authentication/iisClientCertificateMappingAuthentication
system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentication
system.webServer/security/authorization
system.webServer/security/dynamicIpSecurity
system.webServer/security/ipSecurity
system.webServer/security/isapiCgiRestriction
system.webServer/security/requestFiltering
system.webServer/serverRuntime
system.webServer/serverSideInclude
system.webServer/staticContent
system.webServer/tracing/traceFailedRequests
system.webServer/tracing/traceProviderDefinitions
system.webServer/urlCompression
system.webServer/validation
system.webServer/webSocket
system.webServer/webdav/authoring
system.webServer/webdav/authoringRules
system.webServer/webdav/globalSettings
system.windows.forms
system.xml.serialization/dateTimeSerialization
system.xml.serialization/schemaImporterExtensions
system.xml.serialization/xmlSerializer