How has Windows API changed in the last 10 years?

Question

Hello everyone

I am interested in how Windows API has changed in the last 10 years since Windows 98 and Windows 2000? What interesting API calls have been added that you know? Also do people still write anything in API?

I am now learning everything I can about Windows programming and I am really curious about this. Because books don't explain everything, they just explain small subset of all API. And I want to know about the most modern things in Windows API.

Thanks, Boda Cydo.

Answer 1

There has been considerable change in the Win32 API in the past ten years. This link gives you API changes between XP & Vista and Vista & Windows 7. It's a large list.

All applications on Windows use the API, either directly (C/C++ calling into the existing Win32 API's and COM objects), or indirectly via a framework like MFC or .NET.

Answer 2

One good way of finding out about some new APIs and why and how they were written can be to read the blogs of various Microsoft developers that is/has worked on Windows or related systems. Some examples:

Mark Russinovich- http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/
Raymond Chen - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/
Larry Osterman - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/larryosterman/

There's still people writing pure Win32 applications, but maybe not that many since most applications don't need to be written at that level and can usually be written faster in a higher level. Many .Net applications etc will still call straight into various Windows API methods however when the .Net framework does contain the functionality they need.

Answer 3

The real answer is that the core logic is unchanged. You can take a non-trivial Windows 1.0 source code and compile it for Windows 7 with minimal changes. You still have all the same basic building blocks:

• window class creation;
• window creation;
• message loop;
• window procedure;
• resources for dialogs and menus;
• windows styles;
• many more

It is true that a lot of new APIs have been added, but the most common are still there. You do the same things in the same way.