Application Programming Interface (API) New

API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface. APIs allow programmers to interact with existing software applications using a defined set of procedures and instructions.

Microsoft Windows, along with many other operating systems and software, provides an API so that developers can integrate their software with the base operating system. This allows programs to share a common look and feel, along with a common interface to the core OS functions such as file and hardware access.

Without a common API, applications would not only be larger and probably slower, each application would probably look different and not be compatible with one another.