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What is a Windows API?
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The Windows API (application programming interface) allows user-written programs to interact with Windows, for example to display things on screen and get input from mouse and keyboard. All Windows programs except console programs must interact with the Windows API regardless of the language.
Overview. API stands for application programming interface, which is a set of definitions and protocols for building and integrating application software.
The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Over the years, Microsoft has adopted it internally for the development of Office 365, Skype, and other applications. That was 16 years ago. However, Win32 still is the predominant legacy programming API. More apps out in the wild use it than anything else.
It's a set of functions and data structures that a Windows program can use to ask Windows to do something, like opening a file, displaying a message, etc.
Pretty much everything that a Windows program does involves calling various API functions.
Collectively, all the API functions that Windows makes available are called "The Windows API".
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It is not a Windows API, it is the Windows API, and in short it is the set of functions exposed by Windows that allows software to interact with the operating system.
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