Win API documentation

[Sergiu FUNIERU]

I know this question has been asked before, but the links I found didn't work anymore.

1. Is this
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383749%28VS.85%29.aspx
the most updated version of Windows API documentation?

2. Is MSDN free? I heard that MSDN subscription cost $x a year. Does the above link miss something compared to the paid version?

3. I downloaded and installed the most recent version of both DDK and SDK. Yet, I couldn't find a chm version of the Win API mentioned in question 1.
DDK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=36a2630f-5d56-43b5-b996-7633f2ec14ff
SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd146047.aspx

[hutch--]

Sergiu,

It keeps changing. If you can find the old win32.hlp file, get it. You can just go to MSDN online for anything else. I personally use both the old win32.hlp and a win2000 SDK CHM help file set but they are hard to get now. The latest stuff is MSDN online.

[Sergiu FUNIERU]

I personally use ... and win2000 SDK CHM help file

Could you, please, tell me the name of the chm file?

[baltoro]

Sergio Funieru,   
Hutch is correct. The documented Windows APIs change with each new operating system release. It can be maddening. Mostly it depends on which compiler version you are using (and to a lesser extent, which operating system version you are writing for). I have an older version of Visual Studio, and so I obtained the older versions of the documentation (Platform SDK). One major problem is (as I'm sure you've noticed), that after 2002 the Visual Studio compilers are designed specifically to work correctly with the .NET Framework, and so the included documentation tends to be more thorough for the current version of the .NET Framework, and neglects alot of the underlying native Windows APIs. Like hutch said, the best solution is to get an older version of the Microsoft Platform SDK (one that predates whatever Operating system version you are targetting).
MSDN online is free.

[Vortex]

Win32 API reference     Detailed description of important Win32 API.

Win32.hlp is available from Iczelion's website :

http://win32assembly.online.fr/download.html

http://win32assembly.online.fr/files/win32api.zip

[GregL]

Sergiu,

1. Yes.

2. There is the free online MSDN and there are the MSDN subscriptions that in my opinion cost way too much.  No, the online MSDN does not contain any less information about the Windows API than the MSDN subscriptions.

3. Microsoft quit using the .chm format for MSDN quite some time ago, the MSDN that came with Visual Studio 6 used .chm files (multiple files). Like Hutch said, the even older Win32.hlp file is still available and covers the core Win32 API.