STAThread() vs MTAThread()?

[Merrion]

Can anyone explain to me (in small words, as I am a bear of very little brain) the difference between STAThread() and MTAThread()?

 

[Derek Stone]

Both of those attributes only apply when the application is interoperating with a COM component. They exist to allow communication between single-threaded and multithreaded architectures.

An unusually understandable definition and explanation of apartments can be found in the Platform SDK.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/com/htm/aptnthrd_8po3.asp

If you have any questions after reading that I should be of some assistance, since I ran across these types of questions back in Visual Basic 6 when I was looking into threading. Many answers you'll find will be vague and at points utterly useless, but alas, that is the nature of the beast known as COM.