C# 2010 desktop app accessing a windiows api

scampercat

I am writing a windows desktop application in C# 2010 that will be calling a windows api. The user will enter some information, hit the submit button, and the windows api will be called.

My question is would you show me code on how to call the windows api, tell the windows api what you are looking for, and return any optional values obtained from the windows api?

3 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Vulpes13y ago
The following site is a great resource for calling Win32 API functions from C# using 'Platform Invoke', the technical name for the DllImport attribute which Amit mentioned:

http://www.pinvoke.net/#

Desktop functions are listed by the dll which contains them such as kernel32.dll and user32.dll.

Although all these API functions are documented on MSDN, they are written in C and it's not always a straightforward matter to call them from C# due to difference in types, pointers etc. The above site can therefore save you considerable time in figuring out what the equivalent C# signatures should be and, if you're lucky, there's a decent example of use too.
0
Sie Ste13y ago
Are there other windows api that can be used? If so, what those api's and how do I call them?
0
Amit Choudhary13y ago
There are several ways to access the Windows API for e.g. using the DllImport("Kerne32.dll") and calling the API's function.

Also there's an API to access the kernel functions known as WMI.

Check out this article here for more details about WMI and how to program with it.
0