Kolkoo, I think I understand, I was actually just discovering functions related to that kind of thing when I read the replies to the post, thanks!

Arjay, I am using an ATL COM service which acts as a kind of authentication server for some special software. The basic idea is the application connects and requests some special info related to the app itself and "checks it out" exclusively until it is done with it.

The problems I wish to avoid are the application crashing and the data never being checked back in, or the app exiting ungracefully and doing the same thing as a crash. I figured the best way to remedy this would be for the service itself to monitor the connected apps and if the app disappears, revert back to the checked in state so another app can gain control of the information.

I was thinking about those COM.. what are they, those event thingies (I'm really new to COM, sorry for my lack of proper terminology) but I'm thinking it's simpler in the end if I just have a thread watching the connected processes and then act accordingly if one drops. I need to do something in short order as well just to make sure everything keeps up to date.