diff --git a/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.CloudService/ServiceDefinition.csdef b/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.CloudService/ServiceDefinition.csdef
index 567bfe4f7..902e5be53 100644
--- a/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.CloudService/ServiceDefinition.csdef
+++ b/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.CloudService/ServiceDefinition.csdef
@@ -18,7 +18,20 @@
       <InputEndpoint name="HttpIn" protocol="http" port="80" />
     </Endpoints>
     <Startup>
-        <Task commandLine="Startup\ConfigureIIS.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple" />
+      <Task commandLine="Startup\ConfigureIIS.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple">
+        <Environment>
+
+          <!-- Create the environment variable that informs the startup task whether it is running 
+               in the Compute Emulator or in the cloud. "%ComputeEmulatorRunning%"=="true" when 
+               running in the Compute Emulator, "%ComputeEmulatorRunning%"=="false" when running 
+               in the cloud. -->
+
+          <Variable name="ComputeEmulatorRunning">
+            <RoleInstanceValue xpath="/RoleEnvironment/Deployment/@emulated" />
+          </Variable>
+
+        </Environment>
+      </Task>
     </Startup>
   </WebRole>
 </ServiceDefinition>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.Web/startup/ConfigureIIS.cmd b/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.Web/startup/ConfigureIIS.cmd
index 85c2c6cec..9bb55e560 100644
--- a/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.Web/startup/ConfigureIIS.cmd
+++ b/src/Orchard.Azure/Orchard.Azure.Web/startup/ConfigureIIS.cmd
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
-%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config -section:applicationPools -applicationPoolDefaults.processModel.idleTimeout:00:00:00
+REM   Check if this task is running on the compute emulator, if not then sets the Idle Timeout to zero
+
+IF "%ComputeEmulatorRunning%" == "true" (
+	%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config -section:applicationPools -applicationPoolDefaults.processModel.idleTimeout:00:00:00
+)
\ No newline at end of file