For the threads of a single process, critical-section objects provide a more efficient means of synchronization than mutexes. A critical section is used like a mutex to enable one thread at a time to use the protected resource. A thread can use the EnterCriticalSection function to request ownership of a critical section. If it is already owned by another thread, the requesting thread is blocked. A thread can use the TryEnterCriticalSection function to request ownership of a critical section, without blocking upon failure to obtain the critical section. After it receives ownership, the thread is free to use the protected resource. The execution of the other threads of the process is not affected unless they attempt to enter the same critical section.