Customer Rating: 
Summary: Info you wont find elsewhere
Comment: This book is worth the price just for the sample software alone. But even more importantant, it is a provides information on programming Microsoft windows that is not available elsewhere. It only covers the Windows 3.1 API, and is somewhat dated. It does not describe the current .NET development, for example. But even if you are a .NET programmer, there are things done here you cannot do there. Microsoft has hidden a lot of their programming features, and this book tells how to unlock them. This is a MUST BUY for any serious Microsoft programmer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference for learning Windows 32 API
Comment: This book is very well written and the author does a great job explaining every topic that he covers thoroughly. His answers are full of relevant content and he leaves no room for ambiguity. Do take note that this book is dated, but you will not likely find its equal anywhere in its own class of books. If you want to learn about, or become really familiar with the Windows 32 API, this will give you a good reference provided that you refer to msdn for the updated changes to the API which have taken effect since the publication of this book. I won't detail all the helpful topics which are covered as they are already mentioned in other reviews. I had no real problem compiling and running most of the example programs that were contained on the CD included with this book. I used Microsoft Express Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 versions IDE. These IDE's have an option that will convert the syntax for you when applicable. I was not able to compile any of the program examples for chapter 22, Sound and Music. If you are learning to write programs using the Microsoft foundation class library then this book is probably not much help to you. There are other great books available to consider for learning MFC's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still the best reference
Comment: I bought this book because MS keeps trying to hide information about how to make basic Windows apps in favor of pushing flavor of the day technologies like MFC and .Net. I remembered that this is the huge tome that all the Windows programmers from the 90s used to lug around so I bought one. I didn't want a book that would allow me to write "hello world" and then leave me stranded. I wanted to be able to port games (or applications) from other platforms in a way that will work across the entire Windows family. I also wanted to be able to make Windows code that could compile with GCC.
If you want to make a simple Windows app, or port a basic app from Linux or Mac to Windows, this book is a key component to doing it quickly, with a minimum of fuss. If you want to make a Windows app using Dev C++ or another open source development kit for Windows, this book is a must have!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Win32 book!
Comment: This is by far the best book on the windows API, even today is really worth it.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good for pretty graphics, bad for anything else
Comment: I have to say I was dissapointed in this book; not because of *how* the material was presented, but because of the *type* of material presented. It says "the definitive guide to the Win32 API" printed right on the cover, but the selection of topics seems limited only to those which deal with output and presentation (text, fonts, graphics, bitmaps, sounds, etc). Personally, i was looking almost exclusivly for the more "under-the-hood" API functions, which almost no mention is made of.
For example, there is no mention of memory management, manipulating files on the hard disk, serial and parallel ports usage, processes, debugging/kernel, and console-mode functions, just to name a few. Multi-threading, DLL files, and TCP/IP are included at the end, seemlingly only as an afterthought. To give you an idea, the chapter about the "Palette Manager" is over 170 pages long; the chapter on DLL's is only 30.
Also slightly annoying was the large amount of printed code in the book (my personal pet peeve). Many times, you'll find complete programs that span ten or more pages, with little explanation to accompany them. This seems completly unnecessary, especially considering the stout size of the book to begin with (1500 pages!), and the fact that all the code is included on the CD anyway.
So if you're looking for a in-depth book about the more 'visual' aspects of Windows, then this could be your book. But if you're looking for more low-level stuff going on behind the scenes, not even one page of this will be worth the shipping you'll pay.
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