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Microsoft RPC (MicrosoftRemote Procedure Call) is a modified version ofDCE/RPC. Additions include partial support forUCS-2 (but notUnicode) strings, implicit handles, and complex calculations in the variable-length string and structure paradigms already present in DCE/RPC.
The DCE 1.0 reference implementation only allows such constructs assize_is(len), or possiblysize_is(len-1). MSRPC allows much more complex constructs such assize_is(len / 2 - 1) and evenlength_is ((max & ~0x7) + 0x7), a common expression in DCOM IDL files.
MSRPC was used by Microsoft to seamlessly create a client/server model inWindows NT, with very little effort. For example, theWindows Server domains protocols are entirely MSRPC based, as is Microsoft'sDNS administrative tool.Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5's administrative front-ends are all MSRPC client/server applications, and itsMAPI was made more secure by "proxying" MAPI over a set of simple MSRPC functions that enable encryption at the MSRPC layer without involving the MAPI protocol.
MSRPC is derived from theDistributed Computing Environment 1.2 reference implementation from theOpen Software Foundation, but has been copyrighted by Microsoft. DCE/RPC was originally commissioned by the Open Software Foundation, an industry consortium to set vendor- and technology-neutral open standards for computing infrastructure. None of theUnix vendors (now represented by theOpen Group), wanted to use the complex DCE or such components as DCE/RPC at the time.
Microsoft'sComponent Object Model is based heavily on MSRPC, adding interfaces and inheritance. The marshalling semantics of DCE/RPC are used to serialize method calls and results between processes with separate address spaces, albeit COM did not initially allow network calls between different machines.
WithDistributed Component Object Model (DCOM), COM was extended to software components distributed across several networked computers. DCOM, which originally was called "Network OLE", extends Microsoft's COM, and provides the communication substrate under Microsoft's COM+ application server infrastructure.