Hosting the Common Language Runtime 

For applications written using the .NET Framework, hosting the common language runtime is completely transparent. If you compile your managed code as an .exe assembly, the runtime is started automatically by mscoree.dll when the .exe is run. Unmanaged applications, however, can also benefit from hosting the common language runtime. The runtime provides a framework for extending applications such as Microsoft Internet Information Services and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Whether it is invoked automatically, as with managed .exe assemblies, or loaded using the unmanaged hosting API, a .NET Framework application requires a piece of code called a runtime host. The runtime host loads the runtime into a process, creates application domains within the process, and loads and executes user code within those application domains.

In This Section

• Hosting Overview
  Provides an overview of runtime hosting.

• Loading the Runtime into a Process
  Describes how to load the runtime into a process.

• Transitioning to Managed Hosting Code
  Describes how to make a transition from unmanaged to managed code.

• Determining Application Domain Boundaries
  Describes how to determine where to set boundaries for a new application domain.

• Creating and Configuring Application Domains
  Describes how to create and configure application domains in which to run user code.

• Loading and Executing User Code
  Describes how to load and execute user code.

• Setting Application Domain-Level Security Policy
  Describes how to set an application domain-level security policy.

• Setting Role-Based Security Policy and Principals
  Describes how to set a role-based security policy.

• Unloading Domains and Shutting Down a Process
  Describes how to unload application domains and shut down a process.

Related Sections

• Runtime Hosts
  Describes the code that an application needs in order to start.

• Application Domains
  Describes the constructs that hosts use to isolate code running within a process.

• Side-by-Side Execution
  Describes running multiple versions of an application, a component or the runtime.

• Hosting Interfaces for the .NET Framework 2.0
  Describes the unmanaged interfaces for hosting the runtime.