Which Windows IPC mechanism is used to enable legitimate communication between processes by passing messages via a pipe?

• A. Sockets
• B. Shared Memory
• C. Semaphores
• D. Pipes

Answer: (D)

Inter-process communication through a pipe is a channel that lets one process send data to another by writing into one end and reading from the other. In Windows, pipes (especially named pipes) are designed for legitimate IPC and can carry messages between processes on the same machine or over a network; they can operate in modes that preserve message boundaries if needed. Sockets are used for network or endpoint communication and involve network protocols, shared memory is for rapid data sharing via a common memory region rather than through a channel, and semaphores are synchronization tools rather than data-transfer mechanisms. So passing messages via a pipe fits the described scenario best.