Currently, each time I publish changes to my web app I need to refresh the app pool for the changes to take effect. I would manually copy over the new app DLL into the bin directory to refresh it.
Googling brought up this (not sure if this is actually an answer to my question):
Changes in ascx / aspx files - will it reset application
if Shadow Copy is enabled, the application will reset only when you recycle the application pool
However I didn't enable shadow copy AFAIK. Currently I have "precompile during publishing" checked, as well as "allow precompiled site to be updateable" checked.
Are there any other causes of this behavior other than shadow copying enabled?