>Hi Craig,
>
>As a developer I am interested in hearing if my approach violates some inteface guidlines in someones opinion.
>
>Do you have any links to resources on "UI guidelines for Windows applications"?
>
>Thanks.


The official guidelines can be found at msdn.microsoft.com/library. Scroll down the left-hand side to "Books". Expand that and you'll find "The Windows User Experience". This book is also avaible in paper form.

You might also look for the following books:

About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design by Paul Cooper. Paul Cooper is widely regarded as the leading expert in UI design.
Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows from Microsoft Press

The Interface Hall of Shame has also been mentioned.

I've also spent time studying the UI of commercial applications. Asking yourself things like:

- What makes this UI good? bad?
- What is unique in this UI that you don't see in other applications?
- What do I personally like about this UI?
- What are the menu options? Toolbars?

You can probably come up with other questions.