Question

I have been learning C# and use Microsoft Visual Studio which makes it very easy and enjoyable to create windows forms with various controls like progress bars, drop down menus, file-system browsers etc..

Can the same thing be done with C, and are there any recommended programs?

(I have learned some C and would like to make graphical interfaces a step further than just in the console, I guess this is quite hard?).

Answer 1

The windows API was (and still is) a C API. Documented on msdn.microsoft.com.

The simplest way to create a Windows application with a simple form, in C, without using any external frameworks is this program:

#include <Windows.h>
#include "Resource.h"

BOOL CALLBACK   DialogProc(HWND hWnd, UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
  switch(uMsg)
  {
  case WM_INITDIALOG:
    return TRUE;
  }
  return FALSE;
}

int APIENTRY WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,HINSTANCE hNull, LPTSTR cmdLine, int cmdShow)
{
  return DialogBoxParam(hInstance,MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDD_MAINDIALOG),NULL,DialogProc,0L);
}

The assumption is that, in addition to this main.c file, you use the Visual Studio resource editor to create a resource script file (.rc) with a dialog resource that you lay out your controls on.
If you are using Visual Studio Express a resource editor is not included and you will need a 3rd party editor (they are available) to lay out the dialog.