4.22 Interoperating with Unmanaged Code

The .NET runtime supports bidirectional interop with unmanaged code via COM, COM+, and native Win32 API calls. The FCL provides a set of classes and attributes that support this, including precise control of managed-object lifetime and the option of creating user-defined custom marshalers to handle specific interop situations.

For more information, see the following namespaces:

System.Runtime.InteropServices
System.Runtime.InteropServices.CustomMarshalers
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Expando

Important types in other namespaces include System.Buffer.