Why should a person learn win32 api? What things I can do when i have learnt it? Some people tell "There is no need to learn win32 api because literaly you will only design Window(box, messagebox etc), which you can easily do by MS Visual studio tools!". Is this true? And if i want to write a Video player software still I would have to use 3rd party library files(Header files)? I am asking it because most of the colleges and schools teach only Dos programming in C/C++.. I don't why?