I'm a big fan of "Pure Win32 API Code". I use Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 and I'm surprised with it's Ribbon UI. Can we do that in Pure Win32 API? I don't mind complex coding... I use Code::Blocks with MinGW, installed with TDM-GCC 4.6.1_1. Please help...
Ribbon is available as a native control in Windows 7 and Windows Vista with Platform Upgrade installed. The API is COM-based (like many other recent API additions).
See Windows Ribbon Framework in MSDN for complete documentation.