MSDN - Windows Professional Services

Windows Professional Services Overview

This section provides in-depth information and resources for developers working with Microsoft Windows professional services. Explore documentation, APIs, sample code, and best practices to build robust and high-performance applications on the Windows platform.

Key Windows Service Areas

• Core Windows APIs: Access fundamental operating system services for process management, memory, file I/O, and more.
• Networking Services: Develop applications that communicate across networks using protocols like TCP/IP, HTTP, and RPC.
• Security Services: Implement authentication, authorization, cryptography, and secure communication within your Windows applications.
• UI & Graphics: Leverage WinUI, DirectX, and GDI+ for creating rich and visually appealing user interfaces.
• Device & Hardware Interaction: Programmatically interact with system devices, hardware, and drivers.
• System Management: Utilize APIs for managing system configuration, services, and tasks.

Featured API Reference

Process Management

Efficiently manage processes within the Windows operating system. This includes creating, terminating, and monitoring processes, as well as managing threads and inter-process communication (IPC).

Key Concepts

• Process Lifecycle: Understanding the states of a process from creation to termination.
• Thread Scheduling: How the Windows scheduler manages multiple threads.
• IPC Mechanisms: Pipes, shared memory, sockets, and messaging for inter-process communication.

Code Example: Creating a Process

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

public class ProcessCreator
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo
            {
                FileName = "notepad.exe",
                Arguments = "my_document.txt",
                UseShellExecute = true
            };

            using (Process p = Process.Start(psi))
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Started Notepad process with ID: {p.Id}");
                // Optionally wait for the process to exit
                // p.WaitForExit();
                // Console.WriteLine("Notepad process exited.");
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Error starting process: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}
                

File I/O Operations

Master the art of reading from and writing to files and I/O devices on Windows. Learn about asynchronous I/O, file streams, and error handling for robust data management.

Common File Operations

• Reading and writing text files.
• Working with binary data.
• Directory manipulation (create, delete, list).
• File permissions and attributes.

Code Example: Reading a Text File

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

int main() {
    std::vector<std::string> lines;
    std::ifstream inputFile("example.txt");

    if (inputFile.is_open()) {
        std::string line;
        while (std::getline(inputFile, line)) {
            lines.push_back(line);
            std::cout << "Read line: " << line << std::endl;
        }
        inputFile.close();
    } else {
        std::cerr << "Unable to open file." << std::endl;
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}
                

Registry Services

Understand and interact with the Windows Registry, the hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry.

Registry Structure

• Hives: Root keys like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
• Keys and Subkeys: Organizing registry data.
• Values: Storing data types like REG_SZ, REG_DWORD.

More API Examples

Find concise examples and snippets for common Windows API calls.

Example: Network Information

# Get basic network adapter information
Get-NetAdapter | Select-Object Name, Status, MacAddress, DriverDescription

# Get IP configuration for all adapters
Get-NetIPConfiguration -Detailed

# Check connectivity to a specific host
Test-NetConnection -ComputerName www.microsoft.com -Port 443