It's impossible to cover every aspect of Windows and .NET programming in a single book. I've excluded topics that depend on special-purpose hardware and software, such as MAPI, TAPI, and communications port access. I'll cover using ActiveX controls in an application and writing ActiveX controls using ATL, but I'll defer the in-depth coverage to Adam Denning and his ActiveX Controls Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 1997). I'll get you started with 32-bit memory management, DLL theory, multi-threaded programming techniques, and .NET programming, but you need to get the third edition of Jeffrey Richter's Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Press, 1997) if you're serious about these subjects. Another useful book is MFC Internals by George Shepherd and Scot Wingo (Addison-Wesley, 1996). I'll also give you a head start into the .NET space, but I'll leave the hardcore runtime issues to Jeffrey Richter's Applied .NET Programming (Microsoft Press, 2002).