Figure "Windows Applications Running under OS/2 Version 2.0"
Each Windows application executes as a protected mode process within a VDM. As such, Windows applications are subject to the same application protection facilities provided to other protected mode applications (both OS/2 and MVDM tasks) under OS/2 Version 2.0. Windows applications are protected from other Windows applications and from DOS and OS/2 applications executing in the system. This is in contrast to the native Windows 3.0 environment, where protection is limited to DOS applications (Windows applications share a common address space), and is only available when Windows is running in standard or 386 enhanced modes.
The execution of Windows applications in a protected environment allows these applications to take full advantage of the pre-emptive multitasking capabilities of OS/2 Version 2.0, with full pre-emptive multitasking between Windows applications, OS/2 applications and DOS applications. This is again in contrast to the native Windows 3.0 environment, where pre-emptive multitasking is available only for DOS applications and only when Windows 3.0 is running in enhanced mode, thereby impacting performance and preventing many applications written for previous versions of Windows from executing. OS/2 Version 2.0 has no such restriction.