Windows 11: Legacy APIs Still Thriving Since 1995
The migration to WinRT and other modern solutions has not been completed.
Windows 11 still heavily relies on technologies that originated in the Windows 95 era, according to Microsoft Azure's CTO Mark Russinovich. The focus is primarily on the Win32 API.
Win32 is the programming interface through which applications interact with the operating system for basic tasks: creating windows, reading files, handling key presses, and more. It was expected that a gradual phase-out would occur, but the process has been prolonged.
Who would have thought in the nineties that Win32 would still be a fully functional API platform in 2026? Certainly not anyone. Expectations were tied to flying cars and lunar stations, not to Win32, designed during the Windows 95 era.
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Microsoft planned to replace Win32 with the more modern WinRT API, which debuted in Windows 8, along with its derivatives: Universal Windows Platform, Windows App SDK, and WinUI 3. However, developers continue to use both modern APIs and Win32.
Disabling Win32 support is not an option — it would render many legacy applications inoperable. Thus, it seems unlikely that Microsoft will be able to eliminate Win32 in the foreseeable future.
