I have a very simple MVC 4 application I'm trying to deploy to a Windows 2012 server.

Inconsistently, when navigating to the root of the web application (http://localhost/app), it returns a 403.14-Forbidden:

Detailed Error Information:

Module:            DirectoryListingModule
Notification:      ExecuteRequestHandler
Handler:           StaticFile
Error Code:        0x00000000
Requested URL:     http://localhost:80/test1/
Physical Path:     c:\apps\test1\
Logon Method:      Negotiate

The web application is:

• Is a very vanilla VS2012 MVC4 Intranet template -- with only a tweak to a label to prove things were working.
• runs in an Integrated v4.0 application pool
• setup to use Windows authentication
• application pool has a custom AD Identity assigned (so it can gain access to a SQL server)
• application pool identity has read permissions in the c:\apps\test1 folder in which it is running
• It's an MVC4 application, targeting .NET 4.0 currently -There's no default document in an MVC4 application (like a default.aspx), as there shouldn't need to be one.
• I don't want to enable directory listings (as that's not the real error).
• Installed: Roles / Web Server (IIS) / Appliation Development / (.NET 4.5 Extensibility, Application Initialization, ASP.NET 4.5, ISAP Extensions, ISAPI Filters, WebSocket Protocol)
• Works locally on my machine in IISExpress on Windows 8
• Has configured in web.config: <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
• is set to precompiled during publish

When I change the precompiled option to false, the web application does not fail (in my testing at least, it seems to work consistently).

The reason I say it's inconsistent is that I've seen it work, then I've published, and the error returns. I can't find a pattern to the issue (and right now, I haven't been able to get it work again, at all).

The 403 is returned from a local or remote web browser.

I've had trouble finding a solution that isn't intended for older versions of Windows (like suggestions to reinstall ASP.NET which won't work on Windows 2012).

I really don't know what else to try.