What is the aspnet_client folder for under the IIS structure?

Question

I notice that there's frequently an aspnet_client folder under the standard IIS web folder structure. What is this used for? Is it needed?

Answer 1

In the .NET 1.1 days and before this folder provided ASP.NET with it's JavaScript support for the validation controls and other functionality. If you don't have a .NET 1.1 site or older running it should be safe to delete it. I would rename it first to ensure it doesn't cause any problems.

Answer 2

The folder is usually for storing client side Javascript, which ASP.NET uses for things like validation.

It should be safe to delete.

Answer 3

In addition to what others have said, it's usually created by the aspnet_regiis tool, which can be (re-)run by things like Windows Update/AddRemove Windows components/IIS. So sometimes even if you do delete it, it can come back randomly. There may be a way to stop this behaviour, but I havent found it (maybe changing the application version to .NET 2 would do it actually).

So unless you're using certain features of .NET 1.0/1.1 (validation, Smart Navigation etc) you can delete it without any problems, just don't be too surprised if it comes back!

Answer 4

It also has certain icons and scripts that are required for crystal reports to run properly even in versions later than 1.1