Thank you for the prompt reply. I understand the basics and have programmed windows such as toolbars (before the common control in Win32), rulers, MDI, etc. Its all the "details" that are so time consuming. 1. Explorer tree view - I'm sure that I am not the first person writing an "explorer" in plain C. Its all the details of determining which drives are available, etc. that take time. However, I don't see any stumbling blocks; just would be nice if I could find complete sample code. The "chicoapp" example on MSDN and the FileTree example on codeproject.com are very useful. 2. Docking Windows - Details include the subtle ways that the mainframe's window borders are drawn/shaded when there is a docked window, the algorithm for outlining where the window can be docked. The slider for resizing the docked window in non-trivial. 3. MDI splitter windows. This also looks very difficult. It appears that you may have to sub-class the drawing of the MDI border and scroll bars in order to display the scrollbar "splitter", etc. Perhaps no one has attempted this in plain C. Any references to sample code will be appreciated. Thank you. Ted Green ted@vedit.com