The Windows C++ API is a beast that many have struggled against. The authors have done a great job in covering the fundamentals.

This book is definitely for intermediate to advanced c++ developers and it makes no attempts to baby the reader with the basics. The authors do make sure to go step by step in some sections where necessary. The sections on dynamic link libraries and windows exception handling were especially helpful.

As you guessed by the title, this book covered exactly what I was looking for. C/C++ programmers who are dealing with Windows kernel objects, shared memory objects, events, semaphores, security and the like will appreciate this.

The book covered and clarified information that may/may-not be available on MSDN (I never saw it there while searching...), and did so with an overall approach that ties the topics together, shows how they are used, and generally is more understandable. I appreciated this book much more than jumping around through a bunch of disjointed MSDN pages trying to understand how these elements work. The book gives you deep understanding and more than a few tricks you can use in the debugger.

Beginning developers, or developers working on managed code prob. wouldn't have much use for this book. Consider this the nitty-gritty reference manual for how all of the low level stuff gets done.

I appreciate this book, it won't end up back at the used bookstore.

Excellent choice of topics (kernel objects, processes, threads, jobs, fibers, memory management, DLL et SEH)and a good compromise between the depth of analysis and an easy reading.
The book is very attractive visually; the bold fonts are really used at right places and numerous examples (as a matter of fact quite serious in itself) are very, very readable.
A must for a serious programmer.

This is an excellent book on the fundamentals of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems up to vista. The author definitely is an authority on the subject, and the book is pretty easy to follow with the C/C++ samples.

Particularly I like the chapters about the workings of DLLs. And the explanation of Windows memory management is also very clear.

Perhaps the book can be made a little thinner or use somewhat lightweight paper as I found it is pretty heavy to carry around.

In all, this is a very good desktop reference book if you are windows developer. Even though those RAD platform such as .NET make our life easier and enable us to make a good-looking app quickly, still, from time to time, you'll find a some level of understanding of how windows works help you write better code.

I am very satisfied with this book.

I have been programming for over 10 years, but my Windows specific C++ programming is relatively weak due to inexperience with it. Note that if you are in the same boat, you will need additional resources (web based, help files, other books) on top of this book as this book assumes you are already proficient in creating Windows apps.
They make no attempt to tell you otherwise, it is an expert level book - but even if you already know C++ well, there is much Windows specific details that this assumes you know.

Great book and very useful, just not entry level, so know that going in.

This is a comprehensive source for learning the inner working of the Windows. If you say i know Windows programming, i want to hear it from you again after reading it. Excellent. Must have in a bookshelf...

This is a very good title and combined with the classic Petzold Programming Windows, Fifth Edition, will get you up to speed programming directly to the Windows API. It is a lengthy read but not long-winded or redundant. This book covers the more intermediate to advanced topics where the Petzold book is more of an introduction or refresher.

For those who have read Advanced Windows and are considering buying the new edition, here is some relevant info quoted from the introduction:

"Some chapters have been completely rewritten -- such as Chapter 11, which explains how the new thread pool API should be used... Chapter 4 now includes coverage of User Account Control and Chapter 8 now covers new synchronization mechanisms (Interlocked Singly-Linked List, Slim Reader-Writer Locks, and condition variables)... I also give much more coverage of how the C/C++ run-time library interacts with the operating system -- particularly on enhancing security as well as exception handling... Two new chapters have been added to explain how I/O operations work and to dig into the new Windows Error Reporting system..."

Some new utilities are included and the code is more focused on C++.

I'm a beginner in Windows programming and I'm glad I've found this book. I like how it focuses on "whys" and the correct usage of the described system elements. The authors also give enough details about specific APIs so, if reading for an intro, it's possible to follow without having MSDN handy. The code samples are very helpful, especially the mini-applications. The book doesn't concentrate on diagnostics/debugging though, you'd need some other volume for that.

I like 5th edition of this famous book. They returned I/O part that was not present in the 4th edition. The book has all updates for Windows Vista new API features. This book is worth reading even for advanced developers.

What I don't like about this book is its size: because of thick paper the book is huge and it is hard to carry it around. Unfortunately, all Microsoft Press books suffer from this.

Also the book is missing information about in what version of Windows different API first appeared. Now the book says most of the time that API is supported on Windows Vista. I would also like to see it directly in the book whether the function is supported in Windows CE.