florian morrenth - professional web consultant

Yes!

This file does what you are thinking. When a file named "app_offline.htm" is found in the web app's root directory IIS unloads the application and stops serving any pages for this application. Every request will be redirected to app_offline.htm instead allowing you to perform your maintainance task.

(!) But be aware that really no other content will be served meaning that even the CSS must be included in the app_offline.htm and images will not work either.

The solution is to host stylesheets and images in annother application (or anywhere else on the web) and include them in the app_offline.htm - tadaaa.