Comment by Rerarom

6 years ago

Also, there aren't many books about those (compared to e.g. books about the *nix API). I only know of Hart's Windows System Programming.

A very well working combo is "Windows Internals" for the high-level view + MSDN docs for the details.

Windows via C/C++ is another one in this area. Windows Kernel Programming by Pavel Yosifovich is a recent book, but it goes much lower-level.

Windows Internals is pretty good, but it's not a programming book per se. It's trying to document the design of the OS, help with troubleshooting when you don't have the source to the OS, and help developers understand the high-level concepts.

You don't need many books on it. There's Petzold.

  • Programming Windows 5th Edition by Charles Petzold, still commands a price on eBay for its Win32-centric program development strategy. IIRC 6th edition used C# .NET and 7th and 8th went all in on UWP.

    • Just noticed that the 5th Edition is still available on Kindle (at least on Amazon Australia) and is a lot cheaper than I expected it to be. The hardcover edition is still very expensive there though.