16.3. Understanding .NET Application Domains

Under the .NET platform, executables are not hosted directly within a Windows process, as is the case in traditional unmanaged applications. Rather, a .NET executable is hosted by a logical partition within a process termed an application domain. As you will see, a single process may contain multiple application domains, each of which is hosting a .NET executable. This additional subdivision of a traditional Windows process offers several benefits, some of which are as follows:

  • AppDomains are a key aspect of the OS-neutral nature of the .NET platform, given that this logical division abstracts away the differences in how an underlying OS represents a loaded executable.

  • AppDomains are far less expensive ...

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