When an application stores data in a file, the file name and storage location must be carefully chosen to minimize the possibility that the storage location will be known to another application and, therefore, vulnerable to corruption. Without a standard system in place to manage these problems, developing ad hoc techniques that minimize storage conflicts can be complex and the results can be unreliable. 

With isolated storage, data is always isolated by user and by assembly. Credentrials such as the origin or the strong name of the assembly determine assembly identity. Data can also be isolated by application domain, using similar credentrials.