When you run a desktop app, you’re using code older than the modern internet. The Win32 API was introduced in era Windows 95 system. It is still a key part of the most popular operating system in the world. According to Microsoft executives, this was never the plan. But what happened was that Microsoft admitted, begins the story Windows Latest.
Mark Rusinovich, technical director of the Azure platform, presented interesting details. He says the survival of Win32 code is one of the biggest surprises in the company’s history. Rusinovic created the legendary Sysinternals tools back in 1996.
“No one in the 1990s expected Win32 to be the primary API in 2026,” Rusinovich explained. He added that back then, everyone expected flying cars, not code from the nineties.
Why has Win32 survived for decades?
The question arises as to how the 30-year-old API has survived all attempts to replace it. Rusinovic believes that the reason is the huge application ecosystem. Win32 is the basic system layer on which millions of programs rest. It is literally the foundation of the Windows operating system.
Its Sysinternals tools are a testament to that durability. Rusinovich says he’d bet a million dollars that they won’t matter in 2026. However, they are more important today than ever. Sysmon became part of the system in March 2026, while Zoomit is part of the PowerToys package.
Graveyard of failed Microsoft attempts
Microsoft spent 20 years trying to replace Win32. Although these applications are fast, they are very difficult to modernize visually. The company was therefore desperate for a new user interface framework. A series of abandoned projects followed. First they tried MFC, then WinForms for .NET developers. Then came WPF which introduced XAML and hardware acceleration. WPF was supposed to be the future, but it was supplanted by Silverlight, which later “killed” HTML5.
The biggest push happened with the Windows 8 system and the WinRT platform. Microsoft wanted secure, touch-friendly apps. When that failed, they switched to UWP in the Windows 10 era. However, UWP was too limited and turned away traditional developers.
Windows LatestProblem with web applications and memory consumption
Many developers today choose WebView2 over source code. That’s partly Microsoft’s fault. The constant introduction and abandonment of new frameworks has shaken the confidence of developers. No one wants to invest years in a platform that may disappear tomorrow.
Even Microsoft has turned to the web. WebView2 enables the use of the Chromium engine within applications. The result is a flood of web applications such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Copilot.
Web applications are cheaper to develop but consume too many resources. Inserting the entire browser into each application consumes a huge amount of RAM. WhatsApp for desktop is a typical example. It consumes an incredible amount of memory, because it uses a web wrapper instead of lightweight source code.
Windows LatestWinUI 3 as a salvation for Windows 11
Fortunately, the situation is changing. Microsoft realizes that turning Windows into a clone of Chrome OS turns off power users. The company’s Rudi Hein confirmed that the team is now working on fully native apps.
The focus is now on the WinUI 3 framework. It provides a modern design with full access to the Win32 base. Microsoft is finally cleaning up its own backyard. The old window for file properties (Properties) is replaced by a modern WinUI 3 solution.
Even the famous Run dialog (Win + R) has been completely rewritten. The new version is rendered in just 94 milliseconds. It’s faster than the old version. It proves that modern code can be as fast as the legendary Win32. Maybe in 2026 we will finally get a fast and consistent Windows system. But we are back to the beginning. The important thing is that Microsoft has acknowledged that the problem exists. Now he just has to solve it adequately…