Developing Efficient Background Processes for Windows

Updated: January 20, 2009

File name: BackgroundProcs.docx
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This paper provides information to software developers about how to design efficient and secure services and tasks (collectively known as background processes) for the Windows family of operating systems.

This paper summarizes background processes and the service control manager (SCM) and Task Scheduler infrastructure in Windows for managing services and tasks. This paper also provides information about the improvements that have been made to this infrastructure in Windows 7, including information about how the APIs and tools have been updated to support these improvements.

This information applies for the following operating systems:
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008
Windows Vista

Included in this white paper:

• Background Processes Overview

• Optimizing Background Processes

• Services and the Service Control Manager

• SCM Improvements in Windows 7

• Tasks and the Task Scheduler

• Selecting the Appropriate Windows Background Process Model

• Next Steps