title: What do the different DCOM / COM security settings mean?
body: <p>Our application uses COM and DCOM extensively, and so as part of that we need to ensure that the COM security permissions are correctly set up.  I know that I can access these permissions under the Component Services MMC snap in and that I can set the defaults / limits under the property pages for the Computer</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/xVJHx.png" alt="Screenshot of the My Computer property pages"></p>
  
  <p>And that under the DCOM Config node I can drill down and set securty permissions for individual applications</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/6T055.png" alt="Screenshot of the Logger application property pages"></p>
  
  <p>I also understand the relationship between the "Defaults" (what DCOM applications will use unless permissions are expicily set on a per-application basis), "Limits" (what permissions will be enforced even if per application settings exceed these settings), however I don't understand (and can't find any documentation) on the difference between the different settings that I can set</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Whats the difference between "Access", "Launch", "Activation" and "Configuration" permissions?</li>
  <li>Do these settings affect COM applications, or only DCOM applications?</li>
  <li>If using remote DCOM do I need to set permissions on both the server and the client, or just the client?</li>
  <li>Is there any documentation which explains the above?</li>
  </ul>