Create installation media for Windows

You can use installation media (a USB flash drive or DVD) to install a new copy of Windows, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows 10.

To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you’ll find step-by-step instructions. On that website, you can select a version of Windows and create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD. To go directly to one of the versions, select one of these links:

Windows 10 (Then select Download tool now.)

Important: Back up your files before you install or reinstall Windows on your PC. Learn how for Windows 10 or for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

To create the installation media, here’s what you’ll need:

A PC with a reliable internet connection. The download time will vary, depending on your internet connection.

A USB flash drive or DVD. A blank USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of space, or a blank DVD (and DVD burner). We recommend using a blank USB or blank DVD because any content on it will be deleted. When burning a DVD from an ISO file, if you’re told the disc image file is too large, you’ll need to use dual layer (DL) DVD media.

A product key. Your 25-character product key (not required for digital licenses). For help finding it, go to Find your Windows product key.

After you’ve created the installation media, you can reset or reinstall Windows. To learn more, go to Recovery options in Windows 10.

Creating a Window

Window Classes

A window class defines a set of behaviors that several windows might have in common. For example, in a group of buttons, each button has a similar behavior when the user clicks the button. Of course, buttons are not completely identical; each button displays its own text string and has its own screen coordinates. Data that is unique for each window is called instance data.

Every window must be associated with a window class, even if your program only ever creates one instance of that class. It is important to understand that a window class is not a «class» in the C++ sense. Rather, it is a data structure used internally by the operating system. Window classes are registered with the system at run time. To register a new window class, start by filling in a WNDCLASS structure:

You must set the following structure members:

• lpfnWndProc is a pointer to an application-defined function called the window procedure or «window proc.» The window procedure defines most of the behavior of the window. We’ll examine the window procedure in detail later. For now, just treat this as a forward reference.
• hInstance is the handle to the application instance. Get this value from the hInstance parameter of wWinMain.
• lpszClassName is a string that identifies the window class.

Class names are local to the current process, so the name only needs to be unique within the process. However, the standard Windows controls also have classes. If you use any of those controls, you must pick class names that do not conflict with the control class names. For example, the window class for the button control is named «Button».

The WNDCLASS structure has other members not shown here. You can set them to zero, as shown in this example, or fill them in. The MSDN documentation describes the structure in detail.

Next, pass the address of the WNDCLASS structure to the RegisterClass function. This function registers the window class with the operating system.

Creating the Window

To create a new instance of a window, call the CreateWindowEx function:

You can read detailed parameter descriptions on MSDN, but here is a quick summary:

• The first parameter lets you specify some optional behaviors for the window (for example, transparent windows). Set this parameter to zero for the default behaviors.
• CLASS_NAME is the name of the window class. This defines the type of window you are creating.
• The window text is used in different ways by different types of windows. If the window has a title bar, the text is displayed in the title bar.
• The window style is a set of flags that define some of the look and feel of a window. The constant WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW is actually several flags combined with a bitwise OR. Together these flags give the window a title bar, a border, a system menu, and Minimize and Maximize buttons. This set of flags is the most common style for a top-level application window.
• For position and size, the constant CW_USEDEFAULT means to use default values.
• The next parameter sets a parent window or owner window for the new window. Set the parent if you are creating a child window. For a top-level window, set this to NULL.
• For an application window, the next parameter defines the menu for the window. This example does not use a menu, so the value is NULL.
• hInstance is the instance handle, described previously. (See WinMain: The Application Entry Point.)
• The last parameter is a pointer to arbitrary data of type void*. You can use this value to pass a data structure to your window procedure. We’ll show one possible way to use this parameter in the section Managing Application State.

CreateWindowEx returns a handle to the new window, or zero if the function fails. To show the window—that is, make the window visible —pass the window handle to the ShowWindow function:

The hwnd parameter is the window handle returned by CreateWindowEx. The nCmdShow parameter can be used to minimize or maximize a window. The operating system passes this value to the program through the wWinMain function.

Here is the complete code to create the window. Remember that WindowProc is still just a forward declaration of a function.

Congratulations, you’ve created a window! Right now, the window does not contain any content or interact with the user. In a real GUI application, the window would respond to events from the user and the operating system. The next section describes how window messages provide this sort of interactivity.

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