14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft first released the Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework following the availability of Windows 7 Release Candidate Build 7100 in May 2009. Since then the application programming interface code pack for the latest iteration of Windows evolved and RTM’d along with the operating system. In mid-November 2009, the Redmond company updated the Windows 7 API Code Pack to version 1.0.1 and made it available to developer. It was also last month that the software giant showed participants at the Professional Developers Conference 2009, in Los Angeles, just what the API Code Pack is capable of.
At PDC 2009, Yochay Kiriaty, Windows 7 technical evangelist on the Client Platform Evangelist Group, shows devs how the Windows API Code Pack can be leveraged in order to develop Windows 7-tailored applications. Since this year’s PDC, Microsoft has made the video with Kiriaty’s session available on demand, and you will be able to find it embedded at the bottom of this article.
“While Windows 7 is an awesome operating system that runs faster while consuming fewer resources than its predecessor, it also includes new exciting features and capabilities that both users and developers can enjoy. Taskbar, Sensor and Location platform, Libraries, Multitouch, new DirectX capabilities, and graphics improvements are just a few of the many technologies and features that Windows 7 offers developers to help your applications shine while running on Windows 7,” Kiriaty noted.
Developers can take advantage of the Windows API Code Pack for .NET Framework in order to access Windows 7 specific features from managed code. Similarly, the source code library can be used in relation to Windows Vista. Microsoft is providing the Windows API Code Pack in order to make up for the shortcomings of the .NET Framework. In the session below, Kiriaty will demonstrate how to access features including taskbar integration, jumplists, libraries, sensor platform, and Direct2D.
“The number of commercial applications that leverage the various Windows 7 technologies is too long to list, but here are a few popular applications that we demonstrated during the PDC Keynote and that shine on Windows 7: iTunes, Kindle for PDC, Autodesk Project Cooper, and Seesmic Desktop,” Kiriaty added. “While not all of the above-mentioned applications use the API Code Pack (some are not even managed), they all tap Windows 7 features to enhance the user experience. The Windows API Code Pack enables managed code developers to take advantage of such features and build great windows applications.”