IIS supports a directory browsing mode where you can view a list of files and directories instead of viewing an HTML page.

This is very useful for example when you have a lot of files and folders such as an MP3 collection.

To enable this mode you select either a Physical or Virtual directory in the Internet Information Services application and select properties and then select the Directory Browsing check box as shown below.

Once you enable this option when you browse to the directory or any child directories they will be shown using the built in directory browsing module.

In the above view there is a single file and a single directory displayed, and they map to the following physical directory which is the home directory for the web site; in this case c:\inetpub\websites\directorybrowsing

Hiding Files

If you have some files in your directory that you do not want the user to see you must mark them as Hidden using the Windows Explorer file properties dialog.

Note: If you mark the file as hidden even if you know the name of the file you can not download the file (an HTTP 404 error will be produced)

Why do my Virtual Directories not show up in the browse list?

In the example above we have a virtual directory called Music which is pointing to e:\music (directory browsing has been enabled for the Web Site Root and also for the Music Virtual directory)

When you browse the web site you do not see the Music Virtual directory.

This is a special case where IIS does not show the virtual directory but if you knew the name of the virtual directory and manually entered it into the address bar you would see the files as shown below.

The way to make sure your users can see the virtual directory while they are browsing the root is to create a physical directory with the same name in the physical folder of the parent directory.

So in our case our parent directory points to c:\inetpub\websites\directorybrowsing so we must create a folder called Music in the c:\inetpub\websites\DirectoryBrowsing folder.

Nothing has to exist in this new empty Music directory and as soon as you create the folder and refresh the listing you will see the directory shown in the web browser and you have the ability to navigate into it as we would any other directory.

Applying your own style to the directory listing

You can't.....