In IIS 8.5, is there a setting in the Manager GUI that adds the Location and Authentication tags to the applicationHost.config file? - authentication

Question

I've inherited a IIS 8.5 installation with a lengthy applicationHost.config file; I'm not familiar with all the options and am trying not to mess with it as it is working.
When I set up a new web application, to get it work, I'm having to go into C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config
and manually add the following for each application:
<location path="Default Web Site/MyNewAppPath">
<system.webServer>
<security>
<authentication>
<anonymousAuthentication enabled="false" />
<basicAuthentication enabled="true" />
<windowsAuthentication enabled="true" />
</authentication>
</security>
</system.webServer>
</location>
Or I get an error - "Access is denied Error message 401.2.: Unauthorized: Logon failed due to server configuration..."
Lots of posts/comments saying to fix it this way by manually adding the location and other tags, but this seems hacky.
Isn't there an option/function inside IIS Manager somewhere that handles these tags?
FYI IIS Manager is adding below tags to the config file (on its own) for each app. Hoping somehow it can do similar for the location etc tags.
<application path="/MyNewAppPath" applicationPool=".NET 4.5">
<virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyNewAppPath" />
</application>
Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Sub-application's authentication are only allowed in applicationhost.config by default. If you go to config manager, you will see this
If you try to set it in other place like root web.config or <location path='webapp'>, IIS will report the application has already been locked and everything grayed out.
You can set authentication via IIS manager or command line and it will add these configuration to applicationhost.config automatically. I think this is just common operation instead of hacky.