Is there a way to prevent application insights from attaching to a process and writing a startup message

Question

Is there a way to prevent application insights from attaching to a process and writing a startup message

SimonY-1215 0

On Azure App Service, I have a long-running WebJob that creates another process (in .NET using new Process ).

Because application insights is enable on the App Service environment, it attaches to the new process and writes the following to stdout:

AppInsightsAgent: ETW could not be loaded 
AppInsightsAgent ETWLogger Application Insights was started succesfully. 
Application Insights was started succesfully. [ 
  '2.10.8', 
  '4c3e268b-51db-4634-b0cd-64aac8a9eee8', 
  '*********', 
  '1.3.7', 
  'bb8b4a86-c64b-40dc-90ac-0fb8e8c6e4fa', 
  '3000' 
]

Prevent application insights from attaching to this single process (but still have it operational for the rest of the App Service), or
Silence application insights so that it doesn't write this (or any other message) to the stdout for the process.

For context, the stdout from the new process is being consumed elsewhere and this injection from application insights is breaking the workflow.

SimonY-1215 0 Reputation points

2026-04-05T22:15:28.43+00:00

Application Insights has some flags to disable it for NodeJS and Java stacks. In my case, the process I was having trouble with was a NodeJS process.

It is possible to turn off Application Insights for the NodeJS stack on windows (while leaving it on for others) by setting the environment variable XDT_MicrosoftApplicationInsights_NodeJS = 0
Praneeth Maddali 7,085 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-06T09:05:08.44+00:00
HI @SimonY-1215

Thanks for reaching out and providing such clear details (including the stdout output and the fact that you're spawning a Node.js process from your .NET WebJob). I completely understand how the extra Application Insights startup messages are breaking your workflow—super frustrating when you're consuming that stdout elsewhere.

The good news is this is a very common scenario with Azure App Service's codeless instrumentation, and there's a clean, supported way to fix it without touching your .NET monitoring at all.

Recommended fix: Simply disable the Node.js agent (while leaving the .NET agent fully active) by adding one application setting at the App Service level:

Name: XDT_MicrosoftApplicationInsights_NodeJS

Value: 0

You can add this in the Azure Portal under Your App Service > Settings > Configuration >Application settings, then save (the app will restart). That's it—no code changes needed.

This prevents the Node.js auto-instrumentation from attaching to your child process, so those ETW and "Application Insights was started successfully" messages will stop appearing in stdout. Your .NET WebJob and the rest of the App Service will continue to be monitored normally.

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/monitor-app-service?tabs=aspnetcore#using-application-settings-to-control-agent-behavior

Once you've applied the setting, give your WebJob a quick test run and let me know how it goes. If the messages persist or if you're running on Linux instead of Windows, just share a bit more detail and I'll dig in further.

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

Please "upvote" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.
Praneeth Maddali 7,085 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-07T12:23:39.03+00:00

HI @SimonY-1215

Just following up to see if your issue has been resolved or if you had a chance to review my earlier comment?

1 answer

Your answer

SimonY-1215 0 Reputation points

2026-04-05T22:15:28.43+00:00

Application Insights has some flags to disable it for NodeJS and Java stacks. In my case, the process I was having trouble with was a NodeJS process.

It is possible to turn off Application Insights for the NodeJS stack on windows (while leaving it on for others) by setting the environment variable XDT_MicrosoftApplicationInsights_NodeJS = 0
Praneeth Maddali 7,085 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-06T09:05:08.44+00:00

HI @SimonY-1215

Thanks for reaching out and providing such clear details (including the stdout output and the fact that you're spawning a Node.js process from your .NET WebJob). I completely understand how the extra Application Insights startup messages are breaking your workflow—super frustrating when you're consuming that stdout elsewhere.

The good news is this is a very common scenario with Azure App Service's codeless instrumentation, and there's a clean, supported way to fix it without touching your .NET monitoring at all.

Recommended fix: Simply disable the Node.js agent (while leaving the .NET agent fully active) by adding one application setting at the App Service level:

Name: XDT_MicrosoftApplicationInsights_NodeJS

Value: 0

You can add this in the Azure Portal under Your App Service > Settings > Configuration >Application settings, then save (the app will restart). That's it—no code changes needed.

This prevents the Node.js auto-instrumentation from attaching to your child process, so those ETW and "Application Insights was started successfully" messages will stop appearing in stdout. Your .NET WebJob and the rest of the App Service will continue to be monitored normally.

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/monitor-app-service?tabs=aspnetcore#using-application-settings-to-control-agent-behavior

Once you've applied the setting, give your WebJob a quick test run and let me know how it goes. If the messages persist or if you're running on Linux instead of Windows, just share a bit more detail and I'll dig in further.

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

Please "upvote" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.
Praneeth Maddali 7,085 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-07T12:23:39.03+00:00

HI @SimonY-1215

Just following up to see if your issue has been resolved or if you had a chance to review my earlier comment?

Answer 1

Application Insights autoinstrumentation on Azure App Service is controlled at the app level, not per child process. The available guidance in the context only covers:

Removing or avoiding the SDK when using autoinstrumentation.
Fixing cases where autoinstrumentation fails because of conflicting SDKs, unsupported .NET versions, or overridden hosting startup assemblies.
General troubleshooting and performance issues.

There is no documented mechanism in the provided material to:

Exclude a single spawned process from being instrumented while keeping autoinstrumentation enabled for the rest of the App Service, or
Suppress or redirect the startup messages that the Application Insights agent writes to stdout for that specific process.

The context does not describe any per-process opt-out flags, environment variables, or configuration switches for the agent’s console output.

References:

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Is there a way to prevent application insights from attaching to a process and writing a startup message

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