Programming Windows

What Hacker News says

1. delta_p_delta_xAug 2026
   And for some books about Windows system programming:

   - Windows Internals, Parts I and II

   - Windows 10 System Programming, Parts I and II

   - Windows Kernel Programming, Second Edition

   - Programming Windows, 5th and 6th Editions

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2. ThrowawayB7May 2026
   Not a tool per se but I miss Charles Petzold's Programming Windows book in its earliest editions. People forget how difficult it was to find well written programmer documentation in the pre-Internet and dialup-era Internet days. His book was a shining example of how good a programming book could be.
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3. anarticleApr 2026
   Programming Windows is THE authoritative source on Win32 programming: https://www.charlespetzold.com/books.html

   It is a fantastic book, I learned everything I know on Win32 from it. Wrote real time scientific software in windows for ~10y! We did it all, external hardware control, custom UIs, etc. Thanks Ryan Geiss for your timing info.

   Right about VC6 was the sweet spot imo, C/C++ with lightning fast UI for docs and more. Tools got out of the way. Once other languages got involved (C#?) the docs got out of control and harder to use, and the UI started to get a little overloaded.

   The snappiness of those old windows systems was pretty great.

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4. cyberaxMar 2026
   I loved hacking Windows back in 2000-s! It was super-hackable and had PLENTY of very thorough documentation (Petzold's "Programming Windows"!).

   You could even do a lot of kernel-level shenanigans with relative impunity thanks to its layered design. You could do some amazing stuff.

   As an example, SWSoft released container ("lightweight virtualization") support for Windows in 2005, before containers were even a thing in the mainline Linux. They did that by adding a layer of redirection on top of the kernel objects without having access to Windows source code.

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5. rlawsonMay 2024
   Programming Windows - Petzold
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6. runjakeMay 2024
   Programming Windows and Inside Windows are the books you want.

   Programming Windows covers systems programming in C and in later editions, in C#.

   Inside Windows goes over the Window OS architecture in-depth. There’s not much programming in the book but you will come away with a deep understanding of the OS.

   Both books are published by Microsoft Press. You’ll of course want the latest editions but if you come across earlier editions, those are fine too.

   I’m partial to the earlier Petzold editions of Programming Windows.

   The technical docs at microsoft.com are also super helpful and up-to-date: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/docs/

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