Launching a process in user’s session from a service

Question

In Windows Vista/7/2008/2008R2, is it at all possible to launch a process in a user\'s session from a service? Specifically, the local session would be most useful.

Answer 1

It can be done but its not considered good practice for services to interact directly with users' sessions as it can create serious security holes.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327618

A better approach is to create 2 programs, a backend service and a front end client UI program. The service backend runs all the time and exposes its operations using WCF (for instance). The client program could be run at startup of a user's session.