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Comment by pjmlp

4 days ago

Win32 is basically frozen on Windows XP.

Since Vista most newer APIs are done in COM, or WinRT nowadays.

I remember a thin book describing changes to the API in Vista and 7 compared to XP and it was really thin. Just a few extra APIs to be able to show controls in the taskbar preview and things like that. Win32 is a stable API and I hope they don't let anyone from the Windows 11 modernization team touch it.

  • >Win32 is a stable API and I hope they don't let anyone from the Windows 11 modernization team touch it.

    I've heard a Microsoft executive talk about win32 as legacy that they want to replace. I don't think that's realistic though, it's probably the last piece of technology keeping people on the platform.

  • Except for anything that came after XP, you need to at least make use of COM.

    WinRT can be avoided if you don't do any modern stuff like the new context menu, WinUI, or Windows ML.

    • And those new APIs (at least the context menu API) apparently require a "package identity", which requires a signed MSIX installer, which requires paying for a code-signing certificate, unless I'm missing something in the docs.

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