Windows .NET Server Component Concepts

COM+ and Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) are Windows services that help develop and manage middle-tier components—blocks of application code that enforce business rules and carry out data access functions (e.g., the component that manages shopping carts in a consumer e-commerce application). Explained below are some important concepts for understanding these services in Windows .NET Server.

Component Models and Types

Components are created with a component model, software that enables applications to send requests to a component and receive its responses over a network, and takes care of activating components (loading them into memory and starting their execution) and deactivating them when they are no longer needed.

Windows .NET Server actually supports three distinct component types and corresponding component models:

Unmanaged components created with the Component Object Model (COM), which was introduced with OLE 2.0 in 1995

Managed components created with unnamed component model implemented by the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which was introduced in 2002 as part of the .NET Framework.