ADVAPI32 Functions

The large table on this page lists all the functions that appear in the export directory of any known version of ADVAPI32.DLL. For each function, the table gives just a brief summary of the applicable ADVAPI32 versions and of the function’s status with respect to Microsoft’s documentation.

This master list is the key to other lists. More detail on each function’s availability and documentation status may be found by looking for each function in other lists according to the function’s first version. In the Table of Contents, expand the entry for ADVAPI32 Versions to get pages for each version. Additional explanatory notes follow the table.

Names

Function names are reproduced from the export directory of the ADVAPI32.DLL executable. All exports from ADVAPI32 are by name, until version 6.1 (Windows 7) introduces one that is exported only by ordinal. Its name is inferred from symbol files that Microsoft publishes for customer support. Its ordinal is given in brackets after the name.

Versions

The ADVAPI32 versions shown for each function are inferred from a study of public releases such as I have managed to find on old MSDN discs or have since downloaded from free Microsoft websites. My holdings are incomplete and I anyway have no time (or interest in) examining pre-release builds or hotfixes. Of necessity then, the table makes what I hope are reasonable assumptions about likely continuity, especially to suppose that a function will exist in future versions or that a function exists in all (released) builds of a version if no counter-example is yet known. If you want more accurate or comprehensive information, try getting it from Microsoft.

This study refers to applicable products and service packs in ascending order of versions and build numbers. Be aware that this is not chronological order. A quick list of the studied versions, in ascending order, is:

• Windows NT 3.10
• Windows NT 3.51 original and SP5;
• Windows 95 orginal and OSR2;
• Windows NT 4.0 original, and SP3 to SP6;
• Windows 98 original and SE;
• Windows Me;
• Windows 2000 original and SP1 to SP4;
• Windows XP original and SP1 to SP3;
• Windows Server 2003 original, SP1 and SP2;
• Windows Vista original, SP1 (meaning also the original Windows Server 2008) and SP2;
• Windows 7 original and SP1 (meaning also Windows Server 2008 R2)
• Windows 8
• Windows 8.1 original and update
• Windows 10

Description of the early history is complicated by Microsoft’s use of the name Windows for two operating systems. The Windows that runs on DOS came first (chronologically) and is referred to throughout these pages as Windows. The Windows that survives today began as Windows NT and is referred to here as NT even though it has long superseded the other Windows.

Documentation Status

This study’s reference version of Microsoft’s documentation is the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.51 Service Pack 1, apparently released in August 2009. The build date shown on the opening pages of this documentation is 22nd June 2009.

Choosing one reference edition is not ideal for all purposes. Functions inevitably will be added for versions released afterwards, and will typically not be listed above as documented until a new reference edition is adopted. There is also a loss of history. Of interest to many is that Microsoft sometimes does not document new functions until years have passed: that a function is marked above as documented does not mean it has always been documented, only that it is documented in the chosen reference edition. Of interest perhaps only to historians is that even documented functions are sometimes discontinued, meaning specifically that later versions do not export them. Do not rely on me to have searched old editions of the SDK or MSDN Library to find whether discontinued functions ever were documented.

The great majority of functions that are exported from ADVAPI32 in currently supported Windows versions are documented, even as being exported from ADVAPI32. Unfortunately, although the SDK documentation does have a Windows API Reference with a master list of Functions in Alphabetical Order, a moment’s checking shows it to be unreliable as a master list. Individual pages for ADVAPI32 functions are scattered all over Microsoft’s documentation, under all sorts of headings. That a function is not marked above as “documented” does not mean for certain that Microsoft does not document it, just that I haven’t yet found where.