Reputation: 1152
As Title describes, i am trying to find out what is User32.dll and Where/how it is used in WPF and Windows Forms?
Upvotes: 11
Views: 7944
Reputation: 27943
User32.dll is a core windows dll used for windowing and other interactive user program tasks. WPF does not use it much.
Windows.Forms is mostly a .net wrapper around User32, and so is still based entirely on GDI,GDI+, and window handles.
WPF is a newer, and largely different framework that is not nearly so dependent on window messages and window handles (hWnd). It draws on the screen using Direct* and is thus more powerful and often performs better by offloading the graphics rendering to the video card.
Upvotes: 7
Reputation: 887757
User32.dll contains most of the core Windows API, including native windows and controls, and lots of other things.
WinForms uses it to create all forms and controls.
WPF uses it to create Window
s, then draws on the windows using DirectX.
Upvotes: 15