Please could someone suggest some books for WinAPI?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
A good book to understand WinAPI programming?

Please close; duplicate of 329776.

I just recently got involved with an open source project that uses Windows.h WinAPI extensively, and libraries such as Advapi32. I'm a real newbie when it comes to low level C++ stuff, since I've been a C# developer most of my career. Any ideas for where I can get started?

Edit: Needs to be Vista/Win7 compliant.

Edit 2: Are there any books on WinAPI in general? Rather than specific libraries.

Edit 3: Are these the books I'm looking for?

• Programming Win32 Under the API
• Windows® via C/C++, Fifth Edition
• Programming Windows®, Fifth Edition

Answer 1

Windows.h is the fundamental header file for all the Windows APIs. I doubt there have been any books written about it specifically, but nearly any book on a Windows API would at least mention it as it pertains to that API. For a quick overview, I'd suggest looking at the Wikipedia article. You should figure out which APIs your project uses and read up on those specifically.

Answer 2

Charles Petzold's Programming Windows is the definitive Win32 API book.

Answer 3

Windows via C/C++ is well worth the investment

Answer 4

I think that you really need 2 books

1./ Programming Windows (as Richie suggests) for the How
2./ Windows Internals (edition 5) for the What and Why.

Answer 5

I'd agree with "Charles Petzold's Programming Windows is the definitive Win32 API book" but if you want a modern overview try The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows .