Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack

Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework provides a source code library that can be used to access some features of Windows 7 and Windows Vista from managed code. These Windows features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework.

The individual features supported in this version (v1.0.1) of the library are:

• Windows 7 Taskbar
  • Jump Lists, Icon Overlay, Progress Bar, Tabbed Thumbnails, and Thumbnail Toolbars
• Windows Shell
  • Windows 7 Libraries
  • Windows Shell Search API support
  • Explorer Browser Control
  • A hierarchy of Shell Namespace entities
  • Windows Shell property system
  • Drag and Drop for Shell Objects
  • Windows Vista and Windows 7 Common File Dialogs, including custom controls
  • Known Folders and non-file system containers
• DirectX
  • Direct3D 11.0, Direct3D 10.1/10.0, DXGI 1.0/1.1, Direct2D 1.0, DirectWrite, Windows Imaging Component (WIC) APIs
• Windows Vista and Windows 7 Task Dialogs
• Sensor Platform APIs
• Extended Linguistic Services APIs
• Power Management APIs
• Application Restart and Recovery APIs
• Network List Manager APIs
• Command Link control and System defined Shell icons

What’s New in this update (v1.0.1):
The enhancements in this update of Code Pack are:

• Bug fixes in various features and samples included in V1.0
• Performance improvements in Taskbar Thumbnails and Tabbed Thumbnails screen capture utility
• A new method in Taskbar feature to enable clearing the Thumbnail clip rectangle
• New classes and APIs in DirectWrite and Direct2D to support glyph-runs
• Additional samples for Aero Glass and Common File Dialog
• Documentation updates in various areas including the addition of missing Direct2D documentation

Requirements:

• Minimum .NET Framework version required to use this library is 3.5 SP1.
• This library targets the Windows 7 RTM version, though many of the features will work on Windows Vista as well.
• DirectX features require Windows SDK for Windows 7 RTM. Additionally, some Direct3D samples require the August 2009 release of DirectX SDK.

Building and using the Library:

• To build the library (except the DirectX related features) in Visual Studio 2008, please extract the contents of the ‘WindowsAPICodePack.zip’ file in a new folder and build the included ‘WindowsAPICodePack.sln’ file.
• To build the DirectX features, build the 'DirectX.sln' file inside the DirectX directory. Additional information on using the DirectX features of the Code Pack can be found in the 'DirectXCodePack_Requirements.htm' document available as a separate download.

Samples:
The Code Pack also contains sample applications built using this library. Each sample has a C# version and a VB.NET version and has its own solution file.

Documentation:
The Code Pack also includes API reference documentation. API documentation files can be found in two separate files WindowsAPICodePackHelp and DirectXCodePackHelp in the download section.


Some relevant blog entries:

• Windows Shell programming with Windows API Code Pack
• Introducing DirectX features of Windows API Code Pack
• Direct2D and DirectWrite with Windows API Code Pack