Impact of Session 0 Isolation on Services and Drivers in Windows

In Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and earlier versions of Windows, all services run in Session 0 along with applications. This situation poses a security risk. In Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and later versions of Windows, the operating system isolates services in Session 0 and runs applications in other sessions, so services are protected from attacks that originate in application code.

This paper describes changes to the way in which services are run. It provides guidelines for developers to modify application services and driver services to run in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and later versions of Windows.

This information applies to the following operating systems:
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2008
Windows Vista