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I would like to have a windows API reference document available offline. MSDN is fine, but I also need this kind of information when I don't have access to internet.

pdf, chm, help (for emacs) would be fine.

Surely I am not the first person to want that, but I can't find anything. Could someone please point to a place to find that?

I saw the reference was maybe available in the SDK, but installing it takes ~200 MB, and I only want the documentation.

Ben Voigt
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Gauthier
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    200MB??? The full Windows API documentation will take GigaBytes of offline storage. – Darin Dimitrov Jan 15 '11 at 17:59
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    You're right, it's only the code samples. I understand from your comment that my wish won't come true? Not even a basic version? I'm interested in the GUI so far. – Gauthier Jan 15 '11 at 18:11
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    Use [Zeal](https://zealdocs.org/) with MSDN [docset](https://www.rotemy.com/dash/) – sunny moon Jun 25 '18 at 21:16
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    @Darin thats crazy. I have a complete Android reference on my android phone –  Feb 23 '20 at 17:19

6 Answers6

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Just the Win32 API, but it's a thing of beauty: https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32-help-chm/files/

Edit: Dead link replaced with alternate download.

Although it is now 17 years old, the Win32.hlp file from Microsoft is still a useful reference for those, like me, still programming using the "flat" Windows API. It still covers 99% of what I need and is much more convenient and faster to use than the current MSDN and Windows SDK documentation because it is much smaller. It is a file that is possible to add to the help menu of your IDE or favorite editor and call up instantly, even offline.

risingballs
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Visual Studio 2012/2013/2015 Help Downloader

Tool for downloading the Visual Studio 2012/2013/2015 help packages for offline use

enter image description here

Andrew
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diimdeep
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    I think it would be clearer if you explicitly identified the link to this tool ([Visual Studio 2010 Help Downloader](http://vshelpdownloader.codeplex.com/)) -- as it is, I mistook it as just the title to your post. – jjlin Feb 06 '12 at 20:00
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    Update link,[vshd2012](http://vshd2012.codeplex.com/) – wener Feb 14 '14 at 04:56
  • Seems to be working, fortunately the source is available, needed to use one of the patches to get the downloader to work with a proxy. – Chris O Sep 11 '15 at 15:48
  • This is no longer needed; just use Microsoft Help Viewer from within Visual Studio. – Andrew Apr 14 '18 at 16:12
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Official VS2012Documentation.iso & VS2013Documentation.iso

Official MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 ISO

gavenkoa
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Here's a blog post explaining how you could install it. You can also only take a subset of it. You can also download the library it from here.

Darin Dimitrov
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In Visual Studio, "Help > Manage Help Settings" you can download the contents to disk. Then you can press F1 to view them.

This feature is even available in Visual Studio Express. You can start the help server manually at %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Help Viewer\v1.0

Installing the Windows SDK and the .NET 4 help contents took ~700MB for me. There's probably no way around it.

(Windows SDKs used to contain the documentation but it seems like they've stripped it out in v7.1)

You can even do a search offline in the Help, though from my experience the relevant rate is worse than Google.

Edit: The "Microsoft Help System" is also available in the SDK so you don't need to install Visual Studio to use it

kizzx2
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    trial period? AFAIK Visual Studio Express versions are licensed forever for free, albeit with fewer features than the other editions. – Ben Voigt Jan 28 '11 at 18:45
  • Yep, that was a misuse of words. MS just said "we do require that you register your product within 30 days of installation for continued use". Since I installed MSVC 2010 Express just for the compiler tools and I never wanted to register, I kind of mixed it up :P – kizzx2 Jan 28 '11 at 18:47
  • If you don't have the Help Viewer: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/25795/where-is-the-help-viewer.html "- Launch Visual Studio - Ctrl + Q to go to Quick Search - Type 'Help Viewer' - Select 'Help Viewer (Individual Component)' - Close Visual Studio and click Install button on the Installer" – Andrew Apr 14 '18 at 16:14
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Package This! is a good tool to download and compile MSDN docs as CHM.

mmdemirbas
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