I recently found some differences when developing Workflows in Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer (SPD).

Here is what I discovered:

• Visual Studio developed Workflows - deployed at the server level, run under the System Account. They do not require any permissions by the user/initiator of the workflow. Also these workflows are strong named and placed in the GAC. So be careful.
• SharePoint Designer developed workflows - These are called ‘Declarative’ workflows and only have have the permissions that the initiator has. So any actions that the workflow needs to perform will inherit the permissions of the initiator and NOT the System account.

This is bit of a trap for young players.