Introduction to Win32

Win32 is a library made of data types, variables, constants, functions, and classes (mostly structures) that can be used to create applications for the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. A typical application is made of at least two objects: a control and a host object on which the control is positioned.

To create a Win32 application using Microsoft Visual C++:

• On the Start Page, you can click New Project
• On the main menu, you can click File -> New Project...
• On the Standard toolbar, you can click the New Project button
• You can press Ctrl + N

Any of these actions would display the New Project dialog box. From there, select Win32 Project item.

Just like a C++ program always has a main() function, a Win32 program uses a central function called WinMain. The syntax of that function is:

INT WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                    LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow );

To support international characters, Microsoft Windows provides another version of this function named _tWinMain. This version uses the same syntax (same arguments) as the first.

Unlike the C++'s main() function, the arguments of the WinMain() function are not optional. Your program will need them to communicate with the operating system. Here is an example of starting a program with the WinMain() function:

#include <windows.h>

INT WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                   LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow )
{ 
    return 0;
}