Many Windows Programmers still have trouble when it comes to sessions, window stations and desktops. They frequently get mixed up and we can see a lot of question on the Internet about e.g. how to spawn processes in all logged-on user desktops (rather than sessions).  Hence, I have listed some articles that you can read to get a better understanding of such things like a Terminal Sessions.

To understand the concept of Window Sessions, Stations and Desktop it is not necessary to read all articles to the end. I think the beginning is just fine.

  • Pushing the Limits of Windows: USER and GDI Objects
    Mark Russinovich writes about USER and GDI objects but he also gives a basic introduction how sessions, windowstations and desktops are related.

  • Desktop Heap Overview
    The guys from Advanced Windows Debugging and Troubleshooting explain how it is possible that a desktop can run out of heap. It is a quite technical article but it gives a nice insight into some of the Windows internals.

I often prefer such blog articles to MSDN articles because blog articles are much more fun to read.