The three different APIs for using Touch in Windows* Desktop are: WM_GESTURE, WM_TOUCH, and WM_POINTER. They are all different, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. WM_POINTER is the most recent API, but it only works with Windows 8. WM_GESTURE and WM_TOUCH were both introduced with Windows 7 and maintain compatibility in Windows 8. Because backwards compatibility is so important to game developers, we expect most developers will opt to go for one of these two APIs.