Win32 Programmer's Reference

Status: Stable
Released: 2012-01-01
License: Freeware

Back in the day, long before Microsoft compiled the monstrosity now known as the MSDN Libraries, us Win32 developers leveraged the awing depths of "The Win32 Programmer's Reference". This document was distributed as a Microsoft Compiled Help file which served as a compressed, self-contained and fairly portable bible for those of us who were almost always disconnected (the internet was sporadic, slow and non-existent in these days). While old, it's still very useful to this day lower-level Windows developers.

Also, if you feel like being totally masochistic, I decompiled the entire help file and placed it here for online viewing: http://networkdls.com/Win32Ref/ (be warned, the index is 700K of HTML, so mobile viewing is a pain).

Message Queue Accelerators

Accelerator.gif

Memory Mapping

Memory Mapping.gif

Message Pumps

Message pump.gif

RIFF Chunks

RIFFChunk.gif

Thread & Security and ACLs

Security Descriptor.gif

Sound and Abstractions

Sound Sbstract.gif

Color, Graphics and GDI

Colors.gif

Control & Identifiers

Controls.gif

Direct3d

Direct3D.gif

File Handles

File Mapping.gif

Font Metrics

Font Specs.gif

Standard Formulas and Definitions

fxFormula.gif