Run managed code on secure desktop

I am working on creating an application which must interact with the user on the secure desktop (i.e. locked computer screen), but does not specifically provide authentication. From my research, it seems that the o开发者_C百科nly way to get code running on the secure desktop is to use the Credentials Provider API. However, you can only write a credential provider using native Win32 C++ code, there is no way to use managed .NET code. Does anybody know of a way to get .NET code running on the secure desktop? Would it be possible to call a .NET executable from a Win32 credential provider?

If your program uses the Credentials Provider API, then (by definition) it's providing authentication.

That being said, if you want to use your .NET code, your best option would be to run it as a service, and communicate with it via a named pipe or some other IPC mechanism.

I ended up creating a credential provider using Win32 code, and used that to launch the .NET application.