# Programming Windows by Charles Petzold

14 Hacker News commenters recommended Programming Windows by Charles Petzold and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a thorough, well-written guide to Win32 programming that many learned from directly. The most common caveat is that it takes a long time to work through.

## Why people recommend it

- Thorough and well written (4 comments): "devoted an entire chapter (chapter 7) to memory management, with diagrams and examples" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48434349)) "PLENTY of very thorough documentation (Petzold's "Programming Windows"!)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237012)) "His book was a shining example of how good a programming book could be." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48291503))
- Taught Win32 programming to readers (4 comments): "It was a matter of having access to the right (although limited) resources such as Petzold’s book, Codeproject and experimentation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47486573)) "I practically had the Charles Petzold Programming Windows book memorized back in the day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49860004)) "It is a fantastic book, I learned everything I know on Win32 from it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47664898))
- Canonical reference from a respected author (2 comments): "Charles Petzold wrote the canonical reference works for programming Win32 and MFC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47386379)) "Petzold's famous book on the subject, published by Microsoft Press itself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47464938))

## What people warn about

- Slow going, takes a while (1 comments): "Took awhile to grind through it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47653774))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/157231995X?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781572319950) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Programming Windows by Charles Petzold", https://hackerapproved.com/p/programming-windows/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).