Do Segment Registers change at runtime?

Question

Can the Segment Registers change during execution of a program? I am sure it is possible to change them in assembly, but if I write in c or c++ and compile, and have a few inline asm instructions, can I count on the SS register and other segment registers to stay unchanged?

Answer 1

If you are under a typical 32 or 64 bit operating system then you can pretty much ignore segment registers (except when dealing with thread-local storage, exception handling or system stuff). CS , DS , ES and SS all address the same memory and they don't change. Compilers assume this as well.