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Unmanaged Features and Their Managed Equivalents

Many unmanaged features of the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) have equivalents or similar counterparts in managed code. This topic describes how unmanaged technologies are represented in the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Feature Scope

Some unmanaged features in the Windows SDK cover a broader scope than the corresponding Microsoft .NET Framework namespaces. Microsoft provides managed solutions for addressing some of these features. The following table shows managed technologies that are built on top of the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Features

Corresponding Managed Technologies

References

Deployment

ClickOnce

ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications

Graphics and media

Managed DirectX, WPF

Microsoft DirectX Developer Center, Windows Presentation Foundation

Devices

.NET Compact Framework

.NET Compact Framework

Configuration, instrumentation, logging, security, exception handling

Enterprise Library

GotDotNet CodeGallery : Enterprise Library

Messaging

Windows Communication Foundation 

Getting Started Tutorial

Feature Mapping

The following table shows the relationship between unmanaged features and their managed equivalents.

Win32 Technology (Unmanaged)

Microsoft .NET Framework and Other Technologies (Managed)

Remarks

Accessibility

Accessibility

Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI)

System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory

Application recovery

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Audio and video

System.Media, System.Windows.Media

Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

See ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications for more information.

Bluetooth

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Collaboration Data Objects (CDO)

System.Net.Mail, System.Net.Mime

Component Object Model (COM)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Use the System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace to enable COM from the Microsoft .NET Framework.

COM+

System.EnterpriseServices

This namespace wraps the underlying COM+ functionality.

Cryptography

System.Security.Cryptography

See also the Enterprise Library Cryptography Application Block.

Debugging

System.Diagnostics

Unmanaged applications can load the common language runtime (CLR); see Unmanaged API Reference.

Distributed COM (DCOM)

System.Runtime.Remoting

Device I/O

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Devices, Microsoft.WindowsMobile.DirectX, Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms, System.Web.UI.MobileControls, System.Web.Mobile

SetupDi* functions are not available. See also .NET Compact Framework.

Directory services

System.DirectoryServices

DLLs, processes, and threads

System.Diagnostics, System, System.Threading

See also AppDomain and BackgroundWorker types.

Domain Name System (DNS)

System.Net

See the Dns type.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

System.Net.NetworkInformation

Event logging

System.Diagnostics

See also the Enterprise Library Logging Application Block.

Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)

System.Security.Authentication

Fax services

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

File services

System.IO

Function discovery

System.Net.NetworkInformation

GDI+

System.Drawing

HTTP Server

System.Net, System.Web.Hosting

See the HttpListener type.

Image Color Management (ICM)

System.Windows.Media.Imaging, System.Drawing.Imaging

Indexing services

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Internet Authentication Service (IAS)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Internet Connection Sharing and Internet Connection Firewall (ICS/ICF)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Interprocess communication

System.Runtime.Remoting, System.Runtime.Serialization, System.Web.Services

Internet Protocol (IP) Helper

System.Net.NetworkInformation

IP Helper and System.Net.NetworkInformation are similar, but not equivalent, technologies.

Infrared Data Association (IrDA) support

System.Net, System.Net.Sockets

Memory management

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Unmanaged applications can load the CLR; see Unmanaged API Reference.

Message queuing

System.Messaging

The Windows Communication Foundation is built on the System.Messaging namespace.

Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI)

System.Messaging, System.ServiceModel

Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC)

System.Data

The System.Data namespace is also known as ADO.NET.

Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

Microsoft.ManagementConsole

Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Advanced

Microsoft Speech

System.Speech.Recognition, System.Speech.Synthesis

Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS)

System.Transactions, System.EnterpriseServices

Monitor configuration

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Microsoft Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (MS-CHAP) password management

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML)

System.Xml

Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP)

System.Net.Sockets

Native WiFi

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

NetShell

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Network Access Protection (NAP)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Network Address Translation (NAT) Traversal

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Network diagnostics

System.Net.NetworkInformation, System.Diagnostics

Network Location Awareness (NLA)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Network management

System.Net.Configuration, System.Net.NetworkInformation

Network Monitor

System.Net.NetworkInformation

OpenGL

System.Windows.Media.Media3D, Microsoft.WindowsMobile.DirectX.Direct3D

See also Managed DirectX.

PC Health

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Peer-to-peer networking

System.ServiceModel

The Windows Communication Foundation implements peer-to-peer networking.

Performance monitoring

System.Diagnostics

See also the Enterprise Library for instrumentation solutions.

Power management

System.Windows.Forms, Microsoft.Win32

See the PowerState, PowerStatus, and PowerModes types.

Print schema

System.Printing, System.Drawing.Printing

Quality of Service (QOS)

System.Net.Sockets

Real-Time Communications (RTC)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Remote Access Service (RAS)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

System.Runtime.Remoting

Restart Manager

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Rights management

System.Security.Authentication, System.Security.Permissions

Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Security authentication and authorization

System.Security.Authentication, System.Security.Permissions

Security management

System.Security.Policy

See also the Enterprise Library Security Application Block.

SetupAPI

System.Deployment.Application

See ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications for more information.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Still Image (STI)

System.Windows.Media.Imaging, System.Drawing.Imaging

Synchronization Manager

System.Web.Mobile

System Restore

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

System shutdown

System.Windows

See the Application type.

Task Scheduler

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Telephony API (TAPI)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Terminal Services

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Text Services Framework

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows clustering

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows controls

System.Windows.Forms, System.Windows.Controls

The System.Windows.Forms namespace wraps the Win32 controls from Comctl32.dll. The System.Windows.Controls namespace provides similar functionality using WPF elements.

Windows File Protection

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Filtering Platform

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Firewall

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)

System.Windows.Media

Windows Installer

System.Deployment.Application

See ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications for more information.

Windows Internet (WinINet)

System.Net

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

System.Management.Instrumentation

Windows Messenger

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Multimedia

System.Media, System.Windows.Media

Windows NetMeeting

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Networking (WNet)

System.Net

Windows Remote Management (WinRM)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows Sockets

System.Net.Sockets

Windows System Assessment (WinSAT)

No managed equivalent or wrapper.

Windows User Interface

System.Windows.Forms, System.Windows

Unmanaged Features That Have No Managed Equivalents

Some unmanaged features do not have equivalent implementations in the managed framework. In these cases, you can use the Platform Invoke (P/Invoke) service to access unmanaged features from your managed code. For more information, see Interoperating with Unmanaged Code. You can also access managed features from unmanaged code by using C++. For more information, see the Migration and Interoperability Roadmap.

See Also

Concepts

Windows Presentation Foundation

Windows Forms

Guide to the Documentation

ASP.NET Web Applications

ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications

.NET Framework Technologies

.NET Compact Framework

Reference

System.Net

System.Windows

System.Windows.Forms

System.Web