Win32 API Process and Thread Management Create a new thread

Example

#include <Windows.h>

DWORD WINAPI DoStuff(LPVOID lpParameter)
{
    // The new thread will start here
    return 0;
}

int main()
{
    // Create a new thread which will start at the DoStuff function
    HANDLE hThread = CreateThread(
        NULL,    // Thread attributes
        0,       // Stack size (0 = use default)
        DoStuff, // Thread start address
        NULL,    // Parameter to pass to the thread
        0,       // Creation flags
        NULL);   // Thread id
    if (hThread == NULL)
    {
        // Thread creation failed.
        // More details can be retrieved by calling GetLastError()
        return 1;
    }

    // Wait for thread to finish execution
    WaitForSingleObject(hThread, INFINITE);

    // Thread handle must be closed when no longer needed
    CloseHandle(hThread);

    return 0;
}

Note that the CRT also provides the _beginthread and _beginthreadex APIs for creating threads, which are not shown in this example. The following link discusses the differences between these APIs and the CreateThread API.

References (MSDN):

• CreateThread

• WaitForSingleObject

• CloseHandle

• _beginthread, _beginthreadex