In a number of projects I have needed to use native API calls. Over the years I have collected quite a few of these interop code chunks and I decided to pull them all together into a set of reusable libraries. I have tried to carve up the libraries into small enough chunks that they are easy to identify and consume. The only problem with this is that you can literally end up with over 20 dependencies on some of the higher function libraries (oh well).

I have tried to follow the concepts below in laying out the libraries.

• All functions that are imported from a single DLL should be placed into a single assembly that is named after the DLL
  • (e.g. The assembly Vanara.PInvoke.Gdi32.dll hosts all functions and supporting enumerations, constants and structures that are exported from gdi32.dll in the system directory.)
• Any structure or macro or enumeration (no function) that is used by many libraries is put into either Vanara.Core or Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
  • (e.g. The macro HIWORD and the structure SIZE are both in Vanara.PInvoke.Shared and classes to simplfy interop calls and native memory management are in Vanara.Core.)
• Inside a project, all constructs are contained in a file named after the header file (*.h) in which they are defined in the Windows API
  • (e.g. In the Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32 project directory, you'll find a FileApi.cs, a WinBase.cs and a WinNT.cs file representing fileapi.h, winbase.h and winnt.h respectively.)
• Where the direct interpretation of a structure leads to memory leaks or misuse, I have tried to simplify their use
• Where structures are always passed by reference and where that structure needs to clean up memory allocations, I have changed the structure to a class implementing IDisposable.
• Wherever possible, all handles have been turned into SafeHandle derivatives.
• Wherever possible, all functions that allocate memory that is to be freed by the caller use a safe memory handle.
• All PInvoke calls are in assemblies prefixed by Vanara.PInvoke
• If there are classes or extensions that make use of the PInvoke calls, they are in wrapper assemblies prefixed by Vanara and then followed by a logical name for the functionality. Today, those are Core, Security, SystemServices, Windows.Forms and Windows.Shell.

Quick Links

• Documentation
• Issues

Installation

This project's assemblies are available via NuGet.

NuGet Link	Assembly	Description	Dependencies
	Vanara.Core	Shared methods, structures and constants for use throughout the Vanara assemblies. Think of it as windows.h with some useful extensions.	None
	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared	Shared methods, structures and constants for use throughout the Vanara.PInvoke assemblies	Vanara.Core
	Vanara.PInvoke.AclUI	Methods, structures and constants imported from AclUI.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Security
	Vanara.PInvoke.BITS	Methods, structures and constants imported from qmgr.dll for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.ComCtl32	Methods, structures and constants imported from ComCtl32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.User32
	Vanara.PInvoke.CredUI	Methods, structures and constants imported from CredUI.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Security
	Vanara.PInvoke.Crypt32	Methods, structures and constants imported from Crypt32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.DwmApi	Methods, structures and constants imported from DwmApi.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.Gdi32	Methods, structures and constants imported from Gdi32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.IpHlpApi	Methods, structures and constants imported from IpHlpApi.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32	Methods, structures and constants imported from Kernel32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.Mpr	Methods, structures and constants imported from Mpr.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.NetApi32	Methods, structures and constants imported from NetApi32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.NetListMgr	Methods, structures and constants imported from NetListMgr.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.NTDSApi	Methods, structures and constants imported from NTDSApi.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.Ole	Methods, structures and constants imported from Ole32.dll, OleAut32 and PropSys.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.Security	Methods, structures and constants imported from AdvApi32.dll, Authz.dll and Secur32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.Shell32	Methods, structures and constants imported from Shell32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.ComCtl32, Vanara.PInvoke.Ole, Vanara.PInvoke.Security
	Vanara.PInvoke.ShlwApi	Methods, structures and constants imported from ShlwApi.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.TaskSchd	Methods, structures and constants imported from TaskSchd.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.User32	Methods, structures and constants imported from User32.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32
	Vanara.PInvoke.User32.Gdi	Methods, structures and constants imported from User32.dll that have GDI references	Vanara.PInvoke.Gdi32, Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32
	Vanara.PInvoke.UxTheme	Methods, structures and constants imported from UxTheme.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Gdi32
	Vanara.PInvoke.VirtDisk	Methods, structures and constants imported from VirtDisk.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.PInvoke.WinINet	Methods, structures and constants imported from WinINet.dll	Vanara.PInvoke.Shared
	Vanara.Security	Wrapper classes for security related items in the PInvoke libraries	Vanara.PInvoke.NTDSApi, Vanara.PInvoke.Security
	Vanara.SystemServices	Wrapper classes for system related items in the PInvoke libraries	Vanara.PInvoke.Kernel32, Vanara.PInvoke.NetListMgr, Vanara.PInvoke.VirtDisk
	Vanara.Windows.Forms	Classes for user interface related items derived from the Vanara PInvoke libraries. Includes extensions for almost all common controls to give post Vista capabilities, WinForms controls (panel, commandlink, enhanced combo boxes, IPAddress, split button, trackbar and themed controls), shutdown/restart/lock control, buffered painting, resource files, access control editor, simplifed designer framework for Windows.Forms.	Vanara.PInvoke.AclUI, Vanara.PInvoke.CredUI, Vanara.PInvoke.ComCtl32, Vanara.PInvoke.DwmApi, Vanara.PInvoke.UxTheme
	Vanara.Windows.Shell	Classes for Windows Shell items derived from the Vanara PInvoke libraries. Includes shell items, files, icons, links, and taskbar lists.	Vanara.PInvoke.Shell32

Sample Code

There are numerous examples in the UnitTest folder.