Device Access Glossary

The following are terms used throughout the documentation for the Device Access API.

AppContainer

A highly restricted execution environment in which a process runs with a reduced subset of the user's privileges. A process that's running within an AppContainer is called an AppContainer process. An AppContainer process is isolated from other AppContainer processes and from the user's profile. It has limited access to a very small subset of system resources like files, devices, registry keys, interprocess communication (IPC)/remote procedure call (RPC) endpoints, and network resources.

Binding

Associating a device access object with a particular device interface. If binding is successful, Windows Store apps can use the device access object as a broker to communicate with the device driver.

Broker

A component that provides access to a resource that isn't granted by default.

Privileged App

An app that's identified in a particular device's metadata as associated with that device, so that it can communicate with the device driver's restricted interface. An example of such an app might be a proprietary music playback app that has exclusive permission to sync with a portable music player, when apps from competitors can't. For more information about how to set a device's metadata or how to restrict a driver to privileged apps, see Device Experience for Specialized Devices.