The Win32 API
The Win32 API is the programming interface for 32-bit Windows. Windows applications make calls to this API in order to invoke OS services. The actual code behind this API is located in a collection of dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) such as Kernel32.DLL, User32.DLL, and GDI32.DLL and, of course, in the OS kernel itself, which resides primarily in a file named NTOSKRNL.EXE.
The programming interface slated for use with the original version of 32-bit Windows was not the Win32 API. It was the OS/2 Presentation Manager API. Midway through the development of what was to become the first version of Windows NT, Windows 3.0 was released, and adoption of Windows as a development platform exploded. Microsoft then decided that the 32-bit programming ...
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