Windows SDK Technical Articles

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Did you know that you can access the Windows SDK documentation on MSDN, without installing the SDK? Yes, you can. Here are some of the topics:

Overview of the Windows SDK

Windows SDK in the MSDN Library

What's New in the Windows SDK

The Windows SDK introduces several new and updated features for Windows Server 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. This page identifies these features and also highlights features that were new for Windows Vista® and earlier versions of the .NET Framework.

Building Samples from the Samples Directory

Microsoft .NET Framework samples are found individually in the SDK documentation. From each sample page, download the sample files to a chosen location. The .NET Framework samples can also be accessed in bulk by directly opening the sample .zip files located in %MSSDK%\Samples. Win32 samples are installed as loose files in subdirectories of \Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\Samples.

Migration and Interoperability Portal

The topics in this section discuss the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) managed programming model and how it can be used for migration and interoperation with your unmanaged applications.

New Windows SDK Samples

Overview of the samples that are new to the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5

Platform Information

Alphabetical list of APIs documented in the Windows SDK.

Samples in the Windows SDK

* Microsoft .NET Framework (2.0, 3.0, and 3.5) samples are installed with the SDK documents, providing a mechanism to view and browse samples in context of the rest of the documents.   The Windows samples demonstrate Windows operating system features primarily using native code. These unmanaged Win32 samples are not included in the documentation. They are installed as loose files to subdirectories of \Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\samples.

Top Ten Things You Can Do to Create Vista-Style Applications

Microsoft has identified the following ten attributes and capabilities developers should add to applications so that the end-user enjoys maximum benefit from the Windows Vista experience.