Windows 10: Are the days of Windows UWP applications numbered?

Microsoft has big plans when it released the Windows 10 operating system: make customers forget about Windows 8, reach 1 billion devices running the system in record time, and establish a new application platform and Store.

The platform was renamed several times, you may have heard the terms Metro apps, Windows RT apps, Microsoft Store apps, Windows Store apps, Modern apps, or Universal Platform (UWP) apps.

Microsoft limited availability to the Windows 10 platform which impacted the success of the platform significantly as it excluded the majority of Windows customers from using these apps.

UWP introduced some long awaited changes such as a central repository (the Store) that was used to distribute applications and update them. Problem was, Win32 were not supported, and there was little in terms of value proposition to convert Win32 applications to UWP apps, especially in the beginning.

Microsoft promised that UWP applications would offer better performance and security than their non-Store counterparts but it offered a rough experience especially in the beginning. Microsoft had to clean up the Store multiple times and improve it.

The Desktop App Converter was created to assist developers in converting Win32 applications to the UWP platform.

The company limited certain Windows 10 features, e.g. inking, to UWP applications to put additional pressure on developers to get their apps converted or created as UWP applications in first place.

When VLC launched its UWP app in 2016, it was certainly one of the best media players available in the Microsoft Store at that time (and still is). The desktop version of VLC offered more features and was more powerful than the Store version on the other hand, and there was little reason to use the Store app instead of the desktop version. Paint.net is another example.

The future of apps on Windows




Mary Jo Foley had a chance to talk to Microsoft Corporate VP Kevin Gallo about the future of applications on the Windows platform.

The main takeaway is that Microsoft changed its strategy in regards to applications on the Windows platform. Instead of seeing UWP as the only way forward, Microsoft now wants to treat UWP and Win32 equally.

In other words: UWP is not going away, at least not yet, but Microsoft will introduce UWP exclusive components to Win32 as well. The company started the process already, e.g by launching XAML Islands last year which assisted Win32 developers in introducing UWP exclusive interface elements in their applications.

Foley suggests that Microsoft could be aiming for a new "Microsoft-certified and trusted" program for applications without forcing developers to distribute their apps via the Microsoft Store exclusively.

It appears that Microsoft won't invest any more energy in trying to persuade developers to create UWP applications or convert existing applications to the platform for publication in the Store.

Closing Words


Is Microsoft demoting UWP or elevating Win32? It appears that UWP will play less of a role going forward. Whether that means that UWP will vanish at one point in time or not remains to be seen.

With Windows Mobile as good as dead, there is even less incentive for Microsoft or developers to create UWP applications.

Now You: What is your opinion on UWP?

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[UWP] all UWP application windows are not displayed anymore after a lot of start/kill of any UWP application

Hello,

This issue seems linked to the Windows Anniversary Update (build 10.0.14393,
also reproduced on build 14905.rs_prerelease.160811-1739) and the new UWP lifecycle introduced with it, since this issue was not there before.

The test scenario is simple:

1. start any UWP application (in my example the windows calc.exe, the default Windows 10 calculator application)

2. wait 0.5 second

3. kill the same UWP application

4. repeat the 1-2-3 steps 5000 times

This scenario is basically reproducing an automated test environment.

The expected result is that the tested application will always be displayed correctly.

The actual result is that the tested application is not displayed anymore after a various number of loops (between 200 and 800). It looks like it is running in the background since the process can be seen in the task manager.

When the UWP application window can't be displayed, the scope of the issue is much more important: no UWP content can be displayed anymore (Edge browser or Windows settings, etc).

The way to recover from this is to log out from the user session and log in again.

Here is a python script to reproduce the issue:

Is it a known issue ? Any way to work around this (this is blocking our UWP automated testing environment)?

BR

Jean-Marc

 

[UWP] all UWP application windows are not displayed anymore after a lot of start/kill of any UWP application

Hi SuJata,

Thanks for your reply.

I did this already some days ago, but it seems people in MSDN forum were not really interested, since it went quickly in an " Off-Topic Posts" section:

[UWP] all UWP application windows are not displayed anymore after a lot of start/kill of any UWP application

By the way, the section you are refering is managed only by Microsoft Moderators, so I have no chance to post there.

Is there any way to get someone involved from Microsoft on this issue? Shall I post it again on MSDN forum, but in another section?

The Windows 10 feedback app looks like a dead end, and I will not try it again (no answer at all).

In a perfect world, I would like to see this recognized as a known issue, with a kind of issue number and an estimate date for correction (as a QA Software Engineer, that's what I'm used to).

Br,

Jean-Marc

 

Copying from UWP Applications

Hello,

Possible that there are certain texts that cannot be copied in UWP apps like the ones in the System settings. To better understand your concern or to direct you to the proper forum, please answer the following questions:

• Which platform are you using?
• If you are trying to develop an app, is it for mobile, or for desktop?

We're looking forward for your response.