What is the difference between a computer process and thread?

A single process can have multiple threads that share global data and address space with other threads running in the same process, and therefore can operate on the same data set easily. Processes do not share address space and a different mechanism must be used if they are to share data.

If we consider running a word processing program to be a process, then the auto-save and spell check features that occur in the background are different threads of that process which are all operating on the same data set (your document).

process

In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being sequentially executed^[1] by a computer system that has the ability to run several computer programs concurrently.

Thread

A single process may contain several executable programs (threads) that work together as a coherent whole. One thread might, for example, handle error signals, another might send a message about the error to the user, while a third thread is executing the actual task of the...