Book excerpt: The book describes fundamental object-oriented programming methods and explains how readers may apply them within the Windows 95 (and 98) and Windows NT environments using three leading programming tools - Microsoft Visual C++, Visual Basic, and Borland Delphi. Readers will understand how traditional object-oriented principles and techniques correspond to the characteristics of modern operating environments and how OOP approaches can help them more efficiently create genuinely user-friendly applications. The book describes from an object perspective many important Windows programming components and tasks, including: windows and dialog boxes, ActiveX and other controls, menus, event handling, graphics, file access, on-line help, and OLE (object linking and embedding).