Microsoft CTO Mark Russinovich revealed in an interview that Win32 code from the 1990s remains the foundational 'bedrock' of Windows 11. Russinovich noted that the engineers who wrote Win32 never anticipated it would still be a first-class API surface in 2026 — they were imagining flying cars and moon stations by now. Win32 became so deeply entrenched because thousands of developers built on top of it, making it practically impossible to replace. Even Microsoft's WinRT initiative failed to supplant it. The result is visible today in Windows 11's mix of modern UI and legacy elements like the Control Panel, which feels like a time warp to earlier decades.
6.8K Impressions1 Comment