Application Initialization Module for IIS 7.5 issue - ssl

Question

As a part of Proof of Concept utilizing the Application Initialization Module for IIS 7.5 to increase the speed of web apps initialization, I have created a simple web application hosted on IIS 7.5 (Windows Server 2008 R2) with SSL enabled. Please see global and local settings below.
If I understand correctly the way the Application Initialization Module works, I am expecting IIS to issue a request to appinit.aspx (https://localhost/alwaysrunning/appinit.aspx) to initialize the web application. This is however never happening.
Any ideas?
What is the purpose of the attribute initializationPage?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: When I disable SSL the Application Initialization Module issues a request to appinit.aspx as expected. I need to get this to work with SSL enabled though.
Zen
Global settings in the applicationHost.config file:
<add name="appinit" autoStart="true" startMode="AlwaysRunning">
<recycling logEventOnRecycle="Time, Requests, Schedule, Memory, IsapiUnhealthy, OnDemand, ConfigChange, PrivateMemory">
<periodicRestart requests="0" time="00:05:00">
<schedule>
<clear />
</schedule>
</periodicRestart>
</recycling>
<processModel identityType="NetworkService" idleTimeout="00:00:00" />
</add>
<application path="/alwaysrunning" preloadEnabled="true" applicationPool="appinit">
<virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\alwaysrunnig" />
</application>
Local settings in application's web.config file:
<applicationInitialization remapManagedRequestsTo="splashscreen.htm" skipManagedModules="true" >
<add initializationPage="/appinit.aspx" />
</applicationInitialization>

Answer 1

(I know, stale question, but it's unanswered & came up in my own Google search on the subject.)
Refer to the following article from Microsoft Support:
Application Initialization module fails when web site requires SSL (KB2843964). Quote:
Cause
This behavior is by design.
Resolution
To workaround this limitation, you may consider enabling HTTP (uncheck
the "Require SSL" setting in IIS Manager/SSL Settings) and use a URL
Rewrite rule to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS with the exception of
the request coming from the warmup module :
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="No redirect on warmup request (request from localhost with warmup user agent)" stopProcessing="true">
<match url=".*" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="localhost" />
<add input="{HTTP_USER_AGENT}" pattern="Initialization" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="{URL}" />
</rule>
<rule name="HTTP to HTTPS redirect for all requests" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
Gotta love "This behavior is by design." Sigh. Sadly, the top search results I found about this Application Initialization feature fail to mention this limitation — unless one interprets "HTTP request" as strictly meaning non-secure requests.