[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] spartanfornow This is going to sound wierd comming from the person who came up with the least intellegent response to your original question: Unless you break into the windows code, you will not be able to write windows programs, you also wouldn't want to write one directly in a computer language(unless you are trying to impress someone). You would be better off writing it in an open-source operating system such as Linux, and then attempt to make it windows complatable.[/quote] [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winprog/winprog/graphics_device_interface.asp]Microsoft Developers Network[/url] An operating system is no good without developers creating software that runs on it. I want to be able to creat applications and games for windows. For example a CAD program, various science simulations, and professional quality video games. The stuff that is contained in that link I just gave is what I want to learn. That library is structured as a reference and I would like to learn it from the start. What I have in mind specifically is a program that does a physics simulation of of objects in orbit. What I'm hoping to do is to be able to accurately predict the position of objects in orbit like communications satellites, asteroids, and planets. I've got the basic algorithm decided on but when I programmed it I'm having a problem with passing values by reference through functions so I'm going to try it using classes to take the place of arrays and functions. After I get the base code done right in a DOS program and in 2D I want to take to a three dimensional simulation and give it a GUI in windows to make it more useful.