Renaming A Running Process' File Image On Windows

Question

I have a Windows service application on Vista SP1 and I\'ve found that users are renaming its executable file (while it\'s running) and then rebooting, thus causing it to fa

Answer 1

Might be a stupid question but, why do users have access to rename the file if they are not suppose to rename the file? But yeah, it's allowed because, as the good answers point out, the open handle to the file isn't lost until the application exits. And there are some uses for it as well, even though I'm not convinced updating an application by renaming its file is a good practice.