EnterpriseServices and COM+ 1.5 (Win XP and 2003)
Since working with EnterpriseServices (ES), I have found some of the nicer features that are available through COM+ 1.5 (on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 ONLY). A couple of noteworthy options:
1. COM+ Services without Components. I can implement select features of COM+ (such as transactions) without all the overhead of invoking a full-blown .Net class derived from ServicedComponent. I am still determining how useful and viable this is in a large distributed environment.
2. IsPrivateComponent. A property (attribute) that allows me to mark a component as private (within a Server application). This private component is only callable within the Server application. Previously, in COM+ 1.0 (Windows 2000), all components had to be public to have access to COM+ services, which meant that these components could be activated from other applications.
Some other COM+ 1.5 specific features are noted in the .NET Enterprise Services and COM+ 1.5 Architecture article.