6 Appendix A: Product Behavior
The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions include updates to those products.
Windows NT operating system
Windows 2000 operating system
Windows XP operating system
Windows Server 2003 operating system
Windows Vista operating system
Windows Server 2008 operating system
Windows 7 operating system
Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system
Windows 8 operating system
Windows Server 2012 operating system
Windows 8.1 operating system
Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system
Windows 10 operating system
Windows Server 2016 operating system
Windows Server operating system
Windows Server 2019 operating system
Windows Server 2022 operating system
Windows 11 operating system
Windows Server 2025 operating system
Exceptions, if any, are noted in this section. If an update version, service pack or Knowledge Base (KB) number appears with a product name, the behavior changed in that update. The new behavior also applies to subsequent updates unless otherwise specified. If a product edition appears with the product version, behavior is different in that product edition.
Unless otherwise specified, any statement of optional behavior in this specification that is prescribed using the terms "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" implies product behavior in accordance with the SHOULD or SHOULD NOT prescription. Unless otherwise specified, the term "MAY" implies that the product does not follow the prescription.
<1> Section 1.6: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, the MSMQ Directory Service notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, the local queue manager notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. If an MSMQ routing server is enabled, the path that the message takes between the local queue manager and the destination queue manager can be altered, as indicated in [MS-MQBR].
<2> Section 1.6: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, the MSMQ Directory Service notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, the local queue manager notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. If an MSMQ routing server is enabled, the path that the message takes between the local queue manager and the destination queue manager can be altered, as indicated in [MS-MQBR].
<3> Section 1.6: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, queue managers process notification messages as soon as they arrive. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, notification messages are delayed by up to 15 minutes to prevent denial-of-service attacks. If the last change notification message was processed more than 14 minutes ago, the queue manager sets a timer for one minute and waits for additional change notification messages to arrive. If the last change notification message was processed 14 or less minutes ago, the timer is set for the remainder of the 15 minutes instead of one minute. When the timer expires, the queue manager processes all received change notification messages. If 100 or more change notification messages arrive while the queue manager is waiting for the timer to expire, it ignores the messages and instead updates the state of all the public queue objects that it owns with the state of those objects that is stored in the directory service (as described in section 3.2.5.2 for a change queue event) when the timer expires.
<4> Section 1.7: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, queue managers process messages only from the directory service. Other messages are ignored. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, queue managers process messages either from the directory service or from queue managers. Other messages are ignored.
<5> Section 2.2.4: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, the MSMQ Directory Service notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, the local queue manager notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. If an MSMQ routing server is enabled, the path that the message takes between the local queue manager and the destination queue manager can be altered, as indicated in [MS-MQBR].
<6> Section 2.3: For Windows NT and Windows 2000, this protocol uses the Message Queuing (MSMQ): Directory Service Protocol [MS-MQDS].
<7> Section 2.3: For the Message Queuing (MSMQ): Directory Service Protocol [MS-MQDS], the Directory Service schema elements are described in [MS-MQDS] sections 2.2.10 and 3.1.4.21.1 through 3.1.4.21.4.
<8> Section 3.2.3: On Windows implementations of this protocol, except for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003, when a queue manager is running in workgroup mode, the notification queue is not created, and the protocol is not initialized.
<9> Section 3.3.4.1: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, the MSMQ Directory Service notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, the local queue manager notifies the destination queue manager via the MSMQ: Directory Service Change Notification Protocol. If an MSMQ routing server is enabled, the path that the message takes between the local queue manager and the destination queue manager can be altered, as described in the Binary Reliable Message Routing Algorithm [MS-MQBR].
<10> Section 3.3.5.1: On all Windows versions, if a message is received and the value of the Event token is not 1, 2, 3, or 4, the message is ignored.
<11> Section 3.3.5.2: For a Change Notification Message (section 2.2.4) with a Version field set to 0x01, the Windows implementation of the Client side of MQCN sends additional properties that are ignored by the Server side of MQCN. This action is performed because the Windows implementation takes the data structure used in the directory service and passes it as is, without removing the additional or unnecessary properties.
<12> Section 3.3.5.3: MSMQ versions 1 and 2 use MD5, as specified in [RFC1321]; versions 2 and 4 use SHA1, as specified in [RFC3110].
<13> Section 3.3.5.3: MSMQ version 1 sets this value to Sig10.
<14> Section 5.1: On Windows NT and Windows 2000, queue managers process notification messages as soon as they arrive. On all other Windows implementations of this protocol, notification messages are delayed by up to 15 minutes to prevent denial-of-service attacks. If the last change notification message was processed more than 14 minutes ago, the queue manager sets a timer for 1 minute and waits for additional change notification messages to arrive. When the timer expires, the queue manager processes all received change notification messages and clears the timer. If 100 or more change notification messages arrive while the queue manager is waiting for the timer to expire, it ignores the messages and instead refreshes all public queues when the timer expires. If the last change notification message was processed 14 or fewer minutes ago, the timer is set for the remainder of the 15 minutes instead of 1 minute.