Multimedia File I/O
[The feature associated with this page, Multimedia File I/O, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by Source Reader. Source Reader has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use Source Reader instead of Multimedia File I/O, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]
The multimedia file I/O services provide more functionality than the standard operating system services, including support for buffered I/O, resource interchange file format (RIFF) files, memory files, and custom storage systems. In addition, the multimedia file I/O services are optimized for applications sensitive to performance.