The lowest-level Windows API is called win32. It's been the same foundation of Windows from Windows 95 all the way through Windows 7. Everything that's possible in Windows can be done via win32. Today there are many other layers on top of that - C++ libraries, C#, VB.NET and the Common Language Runtime, and much more...but win32 is still there under the hood, and if you really want to understand everything that's what you should learn.

This is as good a reference as any:

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows%C2%AE-Fifth-Microsoft/dp/157231995X/

However, once you have a better understanding and can write some simple Windows apps, you may want to consider a higher-level tool.

Most people don't write win32 anymore.

In C++, you could use MFC, Microsoft's C++ library on top of win32. Or you could use wxWidgets, which is slightly similar in design but more generic and actually works on Mac & Linux too. Or you could use Qt which is similar to wxWidgets but gives you an even higher level of abstraction. All of these will feel more like Java's API.

If you don't need to use C++, consider C#,F# and the other CLR/.NET languages - most Windows-specific development is moving there because of a lot of tools you get to enable more rapid development.

Still, learning a little win32 will help understand how Windows works under the hood, which will be pretty helpful.

I think you really need to learn how to program windows in C, not this new .net or sharp stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Paperback-Addison-Wesley-Microsoft-Technology/dp/0134382250

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows%C2%AE-Fifth-Developer-Reference/dp/157231995X

edit: oops, you wanted courses, not books.

Senior Level Software Engineer Reading List

Read This First

1. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment
   
   

   Fundamentals
   

   
   

2. Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
   
3. Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions
   
4. Enterprise Patterns and MDA: Building Better Software with Archetype Patterns and UML
   
5. Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail
   
6. Rework
   
7. Writing Secure Code
   
8. Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries
   
   

   Development Theory
   

   
   

9. Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests
   
10. Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications
    
11. Introduction to Functional Programming
    
12. Design Concepts in Programming Languages
    
13. Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective
    
14. Modern Operating Systems
    
15. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
    
16. The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
    
17. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
    
    

    Philosophy of Programming
    

    
    

18. Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It
    
19. Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think
    
20. The Elements of Programming Style
    
21. A Discipline of Programming
    
22. The Practice of Programming
    
23. Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
    
24. Object Thinking
    
25. How to Solve It by Computer
    
26. 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
    
    

    Mentality
    

    
    

27. Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
    
28. The Intentional Stance
    
29. Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine
    
30. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
    
31. The Timeless Way of Building
    
32. The Soul Of A New Machine
    
33. WIZARDRY COMPILED
    
34. YOUTH
    
35. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
    
    

    Software Engineering Skill Sets
    

    
    

36. Software Tools
    
37. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language
    
38. Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development
    
39. Practical Parallel Programming
    
40. Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems
    
41. Mastering Regular Expressions
    
42. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
    
43. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C
    
44. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book
    
45. The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
    
46. SOA in Practice: The Art of Distributed System Design
    
47. Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques
    
48. Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and more.
    
    

    Design
    

    
    

49. The Psychology Of Everyday Things
    
50. About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design
    
51. Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty
    
52. The Non-Designer's Design Book
    
    

    History
    

    
    

53. Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality
    
54. Death March
    
55. Showstopper! the Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft
    
56. The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth
    
57. The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad
    
58. In the Beginning...was the Command Line
    
    

    Specialist Skills
    

    
    

59. The Art of UNIX Programming
    
60. Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
    
61. Programming Windows
    
62. Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
    
63. Starting Forth: An Introduction to the Forth Language and Operating System for Beginners and Professionals
    
64. lex & yacc
    
65. The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
    
66. C Programming Language
    
67. No Bugs!: Delivering Error Free Code in C and C++
    
68. Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied
    
69. Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#
    
70. Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit
    
    

    DevOps Reading List
    

    
    

71. Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart
    
72. The Practice of Cloud System Administration: DevOps and SRE Practices for Web Services
    
73. The Practice of System and Network Administration: DevOps and other Best Practices for Enterprise IT
    
74. Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale
    
75. DevOps: A Software Architect's Perspective
    
76. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
    
77. Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
    
78. Cloud Native Java: Designing Resilient Systems with Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and Cloud Foundry
    
79. Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation
    
80. Migrating Large-Scale Services to the Cloud

This old book from 1998 teaches GDI I believe:

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows%C2%AE-Fifth-Developer-Reference/dp/157231995X

Seeing as GDI went entirely out of style not long after, I'm not too surprised that GDI tutorials are hard to find - GDI+ even harder. But that's about as official as it gets, and used copies are $5 on Amazon.

This book will answer all of your questions. It's dated, but is hands down the best Windows API book out there.

If you want a good book to get you started with the WinAPI check out this book http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows%C2%AE-Fifth-Developer-Reference/dp/157231995X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1419265479&sr=8-5 it was the curriculum material used by a Win32 class I took and it's actually a very solid book worth having in your personal library.

Well there are quite a few ways you could go actually. I am going to assume you are on a Windows platform. If you want to learn the internals of Windows, pick up a book on Win32 programming. http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows-Microsoft-Charles-Petzold/dp/157231995X this book seems to be the best in the various Win32 genre.

Other than that you could try to pick up another API. DirectX and OpenGL were built for graphics programming, but they certainly have the tools available to build GUI's. I have also heard mixed things about C++.net and MFC; never learned either though.

>>Why choke people with details of inconsequence?

Permit me an analogy.

Here is a book on the Windows API. Please go write Starcraft III from scratch.

Here is a book on Homotopy Type Theory. Please use it to replicate and expand on the results of Goedel and rederive a proof of Fermat's last theorem.

Here is a book on Kant. Please revisit and critique post-modern philosophy and the inherent issues it inhereits by rejecting all systemic philosophy.

It shouldn't be a problem, right? All the information here is transparent. You should not at all be confused. Ever. Because all the information is in front of you.

On the other hand, here is a book on elementary mathematical reasoning.. Use it to figure out how many combinations there are of 3 committee members from a pool of 11 (very close to a situation in the book).

------

Clearly that's a terrible way to go about advancing knowledge or understanding of a subject. There is an orderly transition from beginner to experienced to contributor.

Now, one may talk as to when the appropriate time to introduce the confounding issues into the pedagogy is appropriate -- that is the whole crux of milk before meat.

The Church shouldn't care a flip about the small details of, say, Zina, because it's entirely inconsequential to the message it's taking to the world. Prophets are men like the rest of us, with a bit of a greater burden on their shoulders to teach the word of God -- meaning they have to go to God to get it. Their "credibility" is not at stake -- the invitation is, remains, and always will be to take it to God and see what he has to say about things.