Does anyone know of any books that show how to use Windows API in Visual Basic .NET

I need to work with the Windows API. I've read the help file in VB, MSDN, and other websites, and I can't seem to find any information for things like how to get started writing the code from scratch. There is a walkthrough on MSDN for an example, but it seems that it assumes you know a lot already. It doesn't say how it got some of the information that it tells me to put into my example program, for example the parameters, etc.

This is one example:

VB Code:

DllImport(CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=True)

It displays this as something I need to put this in my code, but it doesn't say why to use CharSet and any of those values, and it doesn't say how I'm supposed tell when I need to use values like this.

Also, it doesn't say why to use ByVal, etc.

Obviously, I have a lot to learn. Does anyone know of any books for beginners for Windows API .NET, or any way that I can learn this by myself?

Depending on your needs, the basics would be to pass the dll library name and entry point.

VB Code:

Option Explicit On
 
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
 
Public Class Class1
 
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
 
    <StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)> _
    Public Structure SYSTEM_INFO
        Public dwOemID As Int32
        Public dwPageSize As Int32
        Public wProcessorArchitecture As Int32
        Public lpMinimumApplicationAddress As Int32
        Public lpMaximumApplicationAddress As Int32
        Public dwActiveProcessorMask As Int32
        Public dwNumberOrfProcessors As Int32
        Public dwProcessorType As Int32
        Public dwAllocationGranularity As Int32
        Public dwReserved As Int32
    End Structure
 
    <DllImport("kernel32", EntryPoint:="GetSystemInfo")> _
    Private Shared Function GetSystemInfo(ByRef lpSystemInfo As SYSTEM_INFO) As Int32
    End Function
 
    Public Blah, blah, blah.....
 
    End Sub
 
End Class

You should download the API Viewer utility from allapi.net and set the format to VB.NET. Makes life a little easier.

Thanks. .NET and Visual Basic 6 use different coding for Windows API, right? So I've been assuming that researching Windows API in VB6 would be useless. Is that true?

No, not useless. You can still see how the api functions are called and used. The data types are a little different, like Long in VB6 is Integer in VB.NET and things like that. The APIViewer 2004 prog in my link has a .NET mode (change in options, as it starts in VB6 mode) where you can lookup the function declarations, constants, structures, etc that are needed. Then its just a matter of copying and pasting...

For examples on functions you are trying to use, usually sticking "VB.NET" into Google along with the function name will pull .NET examples of the API functions you are trying to use.