Windows 10: Microsoft is unifying Win32 and Windows 10 UWP development

WinLatest · May 19, 2020

It has been reported that Microsoft is moving away from Universal Windows Apps based on the UWP and instead focusing on desktop-style apps. Some journalists have also claimed that Micorosft’s UWP platform has failed, but that’s not entirely true.

For Microsoft, the future isn’t only about UWA (Universal Windows App). Win32 and Forms are also important for the platform.

UWP term refers to shared APIs and resources and UWP is not only the app’s hardware destination.

Today, Microsoft announced Project Reunion, which is the company’s new vision for unifying and evolving the developer platform for Windows 10 devices.

Microsoft’s Project Reunion will make it easier for developers to build a Windows app based on Win32 and UWP APIs. Project Reunion unifies existing Win32 and UWP APIs and makes them available via tools like NuGet, which provides a common platform.

In simple terms, Project Reunion streamlines the development of Win32 and UWP and the result is just “Windows apps.” Developers can now modernize their existing apps with new APIs of both UWP and Win32.

Microsoft has also decoupled the APIs from Windows 10 updates, which is a significant change as it allows the company to make improvements to Windows 10 app development platform without requiring a feature update.

The company says that it’s also going to support these new apps or existing apps across all versions of Windows 10.

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Brink · May 19, 2020

Microsoft wants to close the UWP and Win32 divide with Windows Apps

Is Microsoft's UWP going away? Is the Microsoft Store on its way out? Microsoft Corporate VP Kevin Gallo explains the latest twists in Microsoft's long and winding Windows developer platform strategy.

For months, many pundits, partners and customers have wondered aloud whether Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) has a future. Officially, the story is UWP is alive and well. But the Win32 platform lives on and seems to be back on Microsoft's radar screen. So what's the real story?

I had a chance this week in Seattle to ask Kevin Gallo, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Developer Platform, for his take on what's going on with the Windows developer platform.

When Microsoft launched UWP in 2015, officials promised that the platform would provide apps with better performance and security because they'd be distributable and updatable from the Microsoft Store. Developers would be able to use a common set of programming interfaces across Windows 10, Windows Phone, HoloLens and more, officials said, when selling the UWP vision. The downside: UWP apps would work on Windows 10-based devices only. Developers would have to do work to get their apps to be UWP/Store-ready. And Win32 apps wouldn't get UWP features like touch and inking.

Arguably, Gallo told me, "we shouldn't have gone that way," meaning creating this schism. But Microsoft execs -- including Gallo -- continue to maintain that UWP is not dead.

Over the past year or so, Microsoft has been trying to undo some of the effects of what Gallo called the "massive divide" between Win32 and UWP by adding "modern desktop" elements to Win32 apps.

"By the time we are done, everything will just be called 'Windows apps,'" Gallo told me. "We're not quite there yet." But the ultimate idea is to make "every platform feature available to every developer."
Click to expand...

Read more:

Microsoft wants to close the UWP, Win32 divide with 'Windows Apps' | ZDNet

Microsoft Confirms UWP is Not the Future of Windows Apps - Thurrott.com

Brink · May 19, 2020

Microsoft wants to close the UWP and Win32 divide with Windows Apps

Is Microsoft's UWP going away? Is the Microsoft Store on its way out? Microsoft Corporate VP Kevin Gallo explains the latest twists in Microsoft's long and winding Windows developer platform strategy.

For months, many pundits, partners and customers have wondered aloud whether Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) has a future. Officially, the story is UWP is alive and well. But the Win32 platform lives on and seems to be back on Microsoft's radar screen. So what's the real story?

I had a chance this week in Seattle to ask Kevin Gallo, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Developer Platform, for his take on what's going on with the Windows developer platform.

When Microsoft launched UWP in 2015, officials promised that the platform would provide apps with better performance and security because they'd be distributable and updatable from the Microsoft Store. Developers would be able to use a common set of programming interfaces across Windows 10, Windows Phone, HoloLens and more, officials said, when selling the UWP vision. The downside: UWP apps would work on Windows 10-based devices only. Developers would have to do work to get their apps to be UWP/Store-ready. And Win32 apps wouldn't get UWP features like touch and inking.

Arguably, Gallo told me, "we shouldn't have gone that way," meaning creating this schism. But Microsoft execs -- including Gallo -- continue to maintain that UWP is not dead.

Over the past year or so, Microsoft has been trying to undo some of the effects of what Gallo called the "massive divide" between Win32 and UWP by adding "modern desktop" elements to Win32 apps.

"By the time we are done, everything will just be called 'Windows apps,'" Gallo told me. "We're not quite there yet." But the ultimate idea is to make "every platform feature available to every developer."
Click to expand...

Read more:

Microsoft wants to close the UWP, Win32 divide with 'Windows Apps' | ZDNet

Microsoft Confirms UWP is Not the Future of Windows Apps - Thurrott.com

FordGT90Concept · May 19, 2020

Microsoft Adds Ability to Block Win32 Apps from Install on Windows 10

I wouldn´t be surprised if some manufacturers start shipping their PCs/laptops with Win 10 Cloud only.
Click to expand...

That's actually a certainty already. Microsoft wants to create a competing product against Chromebook. I'm sure this is one of the features that bring them closer to that.

For which API, UWP or Win32? Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...

UWP is "significantly slower" than Win32. Probably 10-30%. UWP is completely managed (memory pointers are forbidden) like .NET Framework is. They're very closely linked. UWP can be made to run on any processor architecture (ARM, x86, and AMD64 right now). I believe UWP has a path for emulating Win32 too (they demonstrated this in a Windows Phone 10 feature).

Windows 10: Microsoft is unifying Win32 and Windows 10 UWP development

Microsoft is unifying Win32 and Windows 10 UWP development

Microsoft is unifying Win32 and Windows 10 UWP development

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