What does defining WIN32 LEAN AND MEAN exclude exactly

Question

I found the explanation defining WIN32 LEAN AND MEAN  quot reduces the size of the Win32 header files by excluding some of the less frequently used APIs quot    Somewhere else I read that it speeds up the build process  So what does WIN32 LEAN AND MEAN exclude exactly   Should I care about this pre-processor directive   Does it speed up the build process  I ve also seen a pre-processor directive in projects named something along the lines of extra lean   Is this another esoteric pre-processor incantation I should know about

User · Answer

Complementing the above answers and also "Parroting" from the Windows Dev Center documentation,

The Winsock2.h header file internally includes core elements from the Windows.h header file, so there is not usually an #include line for the Windows.h header file in Winsock applications. If an #include line is needed for the Windows.h header file, this should be preceded with the #define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN macro. For historical reasons, the Windows.h header defaults to including the Winsock.h header file for Windows Sockets 1.1. The declarations in the Winsock.h header file will conflict with the declarations in the Winsock2.h header file required by Windows Sockets 2.0. The WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN macro prevents the Winsock.h from being included by the Windows.h header ..

User · Answer

According the to Windows Dev Center WIN32 LEAN AND MEAN excludes APIs such as Cryptography  DDE  RPC  Shell  and Windows Sockets

User · Answer

Directly from the Windows h header file    ifndef WIN32 LEAN AND MEAN      include  lt cderr h gt       include  lt dde h gt       include  lt ddeml h gt       include  lt dlgs h gt       ifndef  MAC          include  lt lzexpand h gt           include  lt mmsystem h gt           include  lt nb30 h gt           include  lt rpc h gt       endif      include  lt shellapi h gt       ifndef  MAC          include  lt winperf h gt           include  lt winsock h gt       endif      ifndef NOCRYPT          include  lt wincrypt h gt           include  lt winefs h gt           include  lt winscard h gt       endif       ifndef NOGDI          ifndef  MAC              include  lt winspool h gt               ifdef INC OLE1                  include  lt ole h gt               else                  include  lt ole2 h gt               endif     INC OLE1             endif     MAC             include  lt commdlg h gt       endif     NOGDI     endif    WIN32 LEAN AND MEAN      if you want to know what each of the headers actually do  typeing the header names into the search in the MSDN library will usually produce a list of the functions in that header file   Also  from Microsoft s support page      To speed the build process  Visual C   and the Windows Headers provide   the following new defines       VC EXTRALEANWIN32 LEAN AND MEAN      You can use them to reduce the size of the Win32 header files    Finally  if you choose to use either of these preprocessor defines  and something you need is missing  you can just include that specific header file yourself  Typing the name of the function you re after into MSDN will usually produce an entry which will tell you which header to include if you want to use it  at the bottom of the page

[windows] What does #defining WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN exclude exactly?

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