Slides for Windows 7 for .NET developers webcast, and update on Windows API Code Pack

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Last week we had the Windows 7 for .NET developers webcast, where we showed .NET wrappers that are available to access Windows 7 features otherwise only available to managed code developers.
> For the slides download see at the bottom of this post.

Update: recordings of the webcasts are now online on the Chopsticks site:
 - Dutch: Windows 7 voor .NET ontwikkelaars
 - French: Windows 7 pour développeurs .NET

While addressing many of the Windows 7 features will be possible in .NET 4.0, where for example WPF will surface the touch features, taskbar integration and more, none of this is available today. However, there are already today some options for .NET developers.

Windows API Code Pack (now v0.90)

The Windows API Code Pack is a managed code library giving access to a bunch of Windows 7 features. Just two days after the webcast the API code pack was updated, version v0.90 is now available with quite some new APIs exposes, updated samples and bugfixes.

Current version exposes these APIs:

  • Windows 7 Taskbar
  • Known Folders, Windows 7 Libraries, non-file system containers, and a hierarchy of Shell Namespace entities.
  • Windows 7 Explorer Browser Control.
  • Shell property system.
  • Windows Vista and Windows 7 Common File Dialogs, including custom controls.
  • Windows Vista and Windows 7 Task Dialogs.
  • Direct3D 11.0, Direct3D 10.1/10.0, DXGI 1.0/1.1, Direct2D 1.0, DirectWrite, Windows
  • Imaging Component (WIC) APIs. (DirectWrite and WIC have partial support)
  • 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.

The library also contains all source code for the wrappers as well as sample projects.

Download the API Code Pack on MSDN Code Gallery

Other managed code libraries

Some functionality does not yet today make part of the Windows API code pack. Two other libraries are “Windows 7 Multitouch .NET Interop Sample Library” and “Windows 7 Taskbar and Libraries .NET Interop Sample Library ”.

Check out these videos on Channel9 around these libraries:

Download webcast slides