> You might want to research this further on the net... but basically:
>
> Programs (EXE's) run in one "process space." Windows gives them their own
> "virtual memory" and resources and they can't cross the border into other
> processes (programs) running. This is actually a function of the x86 chip
> and not Windows per se. You can see what processes you have running by going
> into Task Manager and clicking on the Processes tab. Each process can have a
> multitude of windows open (for instance each IE window you have open runs
> (normally) as one process). If one process crashes, it can't take down
> another process with it.
>
> Each process has one "thread of execution" given to it... meaning it can do
> one thing at a time (execute a particular line of code on one CPU clock
> cycle). But processes can and usually do spawn other threads. These threads
> simply mean that a single process can do several things at the same time
> (multithreading). This is a feature of Windows and other OS which allow
> multiple programs to do things at the same time by alloting them "CPU Time."
>
> .NET introduces the notion of AppDomains. This is a pure software function
> not hardware (like Processes). It means .NET can run several "sub processes"
> (programs) in a single x86 process. These "sub processes" also cannot
> interefere with each other.... the .NET runtime makes sure of that. This is
> very memory efficient and it is was makes things like ASP.NET work so well.
>
>

"CMM" wrote:

> You might want to research this further on the net... but basically:
>
> Programs (EXE's) run in one "process space." Windows gives them their own
> "virtual memory" and resources and they can't cross the border into other
> processes (programs) running. This is actually a function of the x86 chip
> and not Windows per se. You can see what processes you have running by going
> into Task Manager and clicking on the Processes tab. Each process can have a
> multitude of windows open (for instance each IE window you have open runs
> (normally) as one process). If one process crashes, it can't take down
> another process with it.
>
> Each process has one "thread of execution" given to it... meaning it can do
> one thing at a time (execute a particular line of code on one CPU clock
> cycle). But processes can and usually do spawn other threads. These threads
> simply mean that a single process can do several things at the same time
> (multithreading). This is a feature of Windows and other OS which allow
> multiple programs to do things at the same time by alloting them "CPU Time."
>
> ..NET introduces the notion of AppDomains. This is a pure software function
> not hardware (like Processes). It means .NET can run several "sub processes"
> (programs) in a single x86 process. These "sub processes" also cannot
> interefere with each other.... the .NET runtime makes sure of that. This is
> very memory efficient and it is was makes things like ASP.NET work so well.
>
>
>

"CMM" wrote:

> The service *is* the "process." If it stops so does the thread.
>
> If the service (process) spawns another process (like, say, an instance of
> Excel) the second process continues running even if the first one shuts
> down. The first one has to do "something special" and explicitely kill the
> second process if that's what it wants to do.
>
> This is really basic stuff, man.
>
>
>