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Using Application Domains

Application domains provide a unit of isolation for the common language runtime. They are created and run inside a process. Application domains are usually created by a runtime host, which is an application responsible for loading the runtime into a process and executing user code within an application domain. The runtime host creates a process and a default application domain, and runs managed code inside it. Runtime hosts include ASP.NET, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the Windows shell.

For most applications, you do not need to create your own application domain; the runtime host creates any necessary application domains for you. However, you can create and configure application domains if you create your own runtime host application, or if your application needs to create or work with additional application domains that are not automatically generated by the runtime.

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