14 DAY TRIAL // A resource Microsoft made available for managed code developers building projects on top of Windows 7 has been downloaded in excess of 67,000 times since it was first introduced. The Windows API Code Pack continues to be available and to evolve, having reached version 1.0.1 in November 2009, almost a month after Windows 7 hit store shelves. With the Windows API Code Pack, Microsoft is attempting to compensate for some Windows Shell and other Win32 APIs that are missing from .NET Framework. And while a managed API for Windows 7, and additional Windows platforms on top of the .NET Framework is not available, fact is that the API Code Pack comes as close as possible.
“There have been more than 67,000 direct downloads of the Windows API Code Pack since its release, and about the same number of downloads for other projects, such as the Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers, Flashcards.Show, Images.Show. These projects either use the Windows API Code Pack DLLs or include the Windows API Code Pack code. I guess this is where I need to acknowledge all of those who downloaded the Windows API Code Pack,” revealed Yochay Kiriaty, Windows 7 technical evangelist on the Client Platform Evangelist Group.
The first development milestone of the Windows API Code Pack was offered over a year ago. The Alpha Build 0.8 went live on April 20, 2009, as Windows 7 was in Beta stage. Following the Alpha milestone, Microsoft made available three additional releases, the last of which on November 18, 2009. Managed code developers can use the API Code Pack in order to leverage specific Windows 7 features in their applications such as taskbar integration, Windows Shell and libraries, but also DirectX 11.
“The Windows API Code Pack is a free, managed source code library provided by Microsoft as-is. You should consider this library as if you wrote that code. It is a great starting point and provides a really solid solution for managed code developers who create Windows application and looking to light up their applications. It covers a lot of the new Windows 7 features as well as some more fundamental core features from the Windows Vista timeframe,” Kiriaty added.