Isolated Storage

Isolated storage is a data storage mechanism that provides isolation and safety by defining standardized ways of associating code with saved data. Standardization provides other benefits as well. Administrators can use tools designed to manipulate isolated storage to configure file storage space, set security policies, and delete unused data. With isolated storage, your code no longer needs unique paths to specify safe locations in the file system and data is protected from other applications that only have isolated storage access. "Hard-coded" information that indicates where an application's storage area is located is unnecessary. Using isolated storage enables partially trusted applications to store data in a manner that is controlled by the computer's security policy. This is especially useful for Web applications and downloaded components that a user might want to run cautiously. Security policy rarely grants this kind of code permission to access the file system using standard I/O mechanisms, but by default, code running from the local computer, a local network, or the Internet is granted the right to use isolated storage.

In This Section

• Introduction to Isolated Storage
  Explains isolated storage and its recommended use.
• Scenarios for Isolated Storage
  Suggests situations for using isolated storage.
• Types of Isolation
  Describes the different types of isolation.
• Isolation by User and Assembly
  Explains isolation by user and assembly and demonstrates its use.
• Isolation by User, Domain, and Assembly
  Explains isolation by user, domain, and assembly and demonstrates its use.
• Isolated Storage and Roaming
  Describes using isolated storage with roaming user profiles.
• Quotas for Isolated Storage
  Describes the effect of storage quotas on isolated storage.
• Securing Isolated Storage
  Discusses how the runtime uses objects to control access to isolated storage.
• Allowed Usage and Security Risks
  Explains some isolated storage security issues.
• Performing Isolated Storage Tasks
  Provides a series of examples demonstrating common isolated storage tasks.

Related Topics

• Working With I/O
  Discusses the use of general input/output classes.
• Isolated Storage Reference Documentation
  Provides descriptions of all the isolated storage members.