Introduction We've all heard stories about the windows API and with a mixture of trepidation and desire, have decided to take the big plunge. Maybe you, like I, have carelessly plugged in code samples we didn't fully understand and had some nerve racking near-death experiences, as the system locked up, or the screen graphics went haywire. Yet, after avoiding this for a time, feel strangely compelled to try again. After reading a bit of material it is clear that learning when to use the Windows API is just as important as learning how to use it.

What's Next Unfortunately, you will not find an answer to every question in this section; nor will you find an online version of Dan Appleman's Programmer's Guide to the Win32 API. What you will find, are a collection of explanations and sample code for some of the simpler functions, or functions that are so darn useful that we can't ignore them. You will also find a list of resource on this page that will help you when you decide to go beyond the basics.

If you have no experience with the windows API, check out the excellent Using DLL's and the Windows API by Wrox Press before going any farther; it contains a thorough explanation of the terms we'll be using and two sample multimedia projects. Then experiment with some of the other functions discussed here and review the material and sites in the resource section.

Microsoft Technical Support You can search the microsoft site by product from this page, you won't find a larger collection of articles anywhere; I did searches on winmm.dll for example, and turned up lots of excellent how-to articles, bug fixes and other information regarding this dll. Check it out.

Desaware Inc. Is Dan Appleman's corporate site. Dan is the author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Win32 API. You can find information about his book and his commercial software, as well as a collection of articles. The book is not inexpensive, but the substantial amount of information and code samples it contains make it worth the price.

VBnet Has some of the best coverage of the Windows 95/NT4 APIs that you will find on-line, offers a Code Library of how-to's, a FAQ Library for the newbie, resource section and more. A lot of the material is advanced stuff but the extensive API coverage, FAQ and Code Library make this a must visit.

Wrox Web-Developer If you checked out the tutorial Using DLL's and the Windows API by Peter Wright, you will have gotten a good indication of the quality of books produced by this excellent company. I have recently had the opportunity to work as a technical reviewer on one of their new beginner books and was extremely impressed by the tremendous effort that they put in to producing a quality book.

Coriolis Group Books I picked up Visual Basic 4 Multimedia Adventure Set a while back (the VB 5 version is now out). I haven't completed it because it covers a lot of material that is beyond me right now. However, even just skimming through the book, you can't help but be impressed by the incredible coverage of multimedia programming; API coverage, raster operations, animation and plenty more, all demonstrated with some dynamite sample projects.

Matt Hart's VB Help I found this page while cruising the net one night. Lots of great sample projects that demo API usage.