Best way to communicate between 2 .Net apps?

Question

If I control both applications, what is the best way to communicate between 2 exe's written in VB.Net. For example, I want to drop an XML file from one app, and pick it up with the other, but I do not want poll for the file. I've heard of named pipes, but I found it was complicated. What's the most effecient way to do this?

Answer 1

The easiest way is probably to use Windows Communication Foundation. This article has example code written in VB.NET.

Answer 2

You don't have to poll for the file. Use a FileSystemWatcher.