Objects Inherited Through a CreateProcess Call

Last reviewed: December 16, 1996
Article ID: Q83298

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:

    - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

The objects inherited by a process started by a call to CreateProcess() are those objects that you can get a handle to and on which you can use the CloseHandle() function. These objects include the following:

   Processes
   Events
   Semaphores
   Mutexes
   Files (including file mappings)
   Standard input, output, or error devices

However, the new process will only inherit objects that were marked inheritable by the old process.

These are duplicate handles. Each process maintains memory for its own handle table. If one of the processes modifies its handle (for example, closes it or changes the mode for the console handle), other processes will not be affected.

Processes will also inherit environment variables, the current directory, and priority class.

KBCategory: kbprg
KBSubcategory: BseProcThrd
Additional reference words: 3.50 3.51 4.00 95

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Last reviewed: December 16, 1996
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