38 posts
The Hot Take: Trying to get those linux converts back?
Microsoft is reportedly developing a new Windows 11 performance optimization feature internally known as Low Latency Profile. The technology is said to be part of the companyâs broader Windows K2 initiative, which focuses on improving responsiveness throughout the operating system.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: So legacy is always a ball and chain keeping you from moving forward faster. We'll see how they drop some of the legacy architecture to modernize the OS.
When you right-click a file in Windows 11 or launch a traditional desktop application, you are interacting with code that predates the commercial internet. The Win32 API, introduced all the way back in the Windows 95 era, is still a significant part of the worldâs most popular desktop operating system. But according to Microsoftâs own leadership, this was never the plan. First spotted by Windows Latest, in a recent video posted by the official Microsoft Dev Docs account on X, Mark Russinovich, Microsoftâs Chief Technology Officer of Azure and the legendary creator of Sysinternals, admitted that the survival of Win32 is one of the biggest surprises in the companyâs history. https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Microsoft-statement-on-Win32.mp4 âDid anyone in the 90s expect Win32 to be a first-class API surface in the year 2026? And I think I can safely answer, no,â Russinovich explained. âNobody, I think, would have expected that because we were thinking flying cars and, you know, moon stations by the year 2026, not Win32 that was designed back in Windows 95 days.â Even as everything in the world has changed, it baffles me that computer code, as old as me, is still relevant when nothing around me feels the same as it did just 10 years ago. Disk Management Tool is a Win32 application still relevant in Windows 11 So how did a 30-year-old API outlive decades of internal attempts to replace it? According to Russinovich, it all comes down to the massive ecosystem built on top of it. âI think that one of the reasons itâs got the staying power is itâs just a fundamental layer inside of Windows that so many apps have built on⌠itâs kind of bedrock,â he said. Russinovich pointed to his own Sysinternals tools as proof. Founded in 1996, he noted that he would have âbet a million dollarsâ that his earliest tools wouldnât be relevant in 2026. Instead, they are more relevant than ever. Sysmon, which became an inbuilt feature with the March 2026 update, is actively being integrated directly into Windows, and Zoomit, developed in the early 2000s, remains an incredibly popular utility inside PowerToys today. Microsoft has a graveyard of Win32 replacements Several years ago, when I came to know about Win32, the first thing I was told was how robust it was. So, if Win32 is such a capable bedrock, why has Microsoft spent the last twenty years trying to kill it? Like many of you, I have more Win32 apps on my PC than web apps or apps built in a modern framework. Yes, they are incredibly fast and deeply integrated into the OS hardware, but the fact is, they are notoriously difficult to modernize visually. To keep up with modern user interface expectations, Microsoft desperately needed a new framework. What followed was a decades-long graveyard of abandoned app frameworks. Microsoft tried MFC (a C++ wrapper), followed by WinForms for .NET developers. While these arenât really Win32 replacements, they were abstractions on top of Win32. Then came Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which was when the actual effort for replacement started and it introduced XAML and hardware-accelerated rendering. WPF was supposed to be the definitive future of Windows apps, until Silverlight briefly took the spotlight as a cross-platform bet, only to be eventually killed off by the rise of HTML5. The most aggressive push to replace Win32 came with Windows 8 and the introduction of WinRT. Microsoft wanted developers to build secure, touch-friendly, full-screen apps. When the Windows 8 UI failed, they redirected to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) in Windows 10. Back in my Windows 10 Mobile days, the one thing I used to tell everyone about the app situation in Microsoftâs mobile OS was that UWP would enable a powerful unified platform for apps that work across phones, Xbox, and PCs. Well, that didnât age well. Also, UWP was too restrictive, heavily sandboxed, and completely alienated traditional desktop developers who needed deep OS access. As Russinovich noted in his video: âThereâs been various times in Microsoftâs history where we thought weâd reboot the Windows API surface like WinRT that actually didnât play out the way that a lot of people expected it to, given thereâs still the separation between thick client and Win32 and the browser, which is HTML and JavaScript.â Developers still prefer WebView2 for Windows amid the RAM crisis I asked multiple developers why they continue making RAM-hungry web apps for Windows. That, too, was Microsoftâs fault. Because Microsoft kept introducing and subsequently abandoning native frameworks, developers simply lost trust in the Windows platform. I explained this in detail in a Windows Latest report, where a developer told me why Windows 11 keeps getting web apps instead of native apps. WhatsApp web app stuck in the loading screen I was told that building a native Windows app started to feel like a massive liability. And they canât be blamed. Why invest years into a framework that Microsoft might deprecate tomorrow? Funnily enough, it was Microsoft that pivoted to the web. Microsoft introduced WebView2, a developer control that essentially embeds the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge engine directly inside desktop applications. Suddenly, the entire OS was flooded with web apps, including Microsoft Teams, Clipchamp, the new Outlook, OneDrive, the Windows 11 Widgets board, and even the latest version of Copilot is a web app. Copilot in Task Manager While web apps are cheaper to build and much easier to maintain across multiple platforms, they are fundamentally flawed for desktop computing. Embedding a full browser engine into every individual application is a recipe for disaster when it comes to system resources. This love for WebView2 and Electron is the reason Windows 11 has become such a memory hog. I use the WhatsApp desktop app every single day, and it is an absolute disaster. In my testing, WhatsApp consumes an absurd amount of RAM when doing absolutely nothing, entirely because it uses heavy web wrappers instead of the lightweight native code it used to use in the UWP era. Microsoftâs Clipchamp is another web app that I had to use for basic video edits, but I later left it because Microsoftâs built-in video editor now needs OneDrive sync to work! My frustration is compounded when I compare Windows to macOS. While Apple users enjoy highly optimized, native applications like iMovie or the dedicated Pages suite for free, loyal Windows users like me have no choice but to rely on web-based alternatives like Clipchamp that need a constant internet connection, lack deep OS integration, and eat through system memory. Microsoft Clipchamp is a WebView2 powered video editor Fortunately, Appleâs success with a sub $600 budget laptop forced the Redmond giant to rethink their app development priorities. Microsoft is pivoting back to native apps with WinUI 3 Thankfully, the tide is finally turning. Microsoft has realized that making Windows into a glorified Chrome OS is alienating power users and actively destroying system performance. A few months ago, Rudy Huyn, a Partner Architect at Microsoft, confirmed he was hiring a team dedicated specifically to building â100% nativeâ apps for Windows 11. The focus has aggressively shifted toward WinUI 3, the latest native UI framework built under the Windows App SDK umbrella. WinUI 3 is exactly what Microsoft needs to win back developers. It allows them to build gorgeous, modern, Fluent-designed applications that still have full, unrestricted access to the underlying Win32 âbedrock.â Just recently, Microsoft released a massive Windows App SDK 2.0 update, equipping developers with semantic versioning, a refactored Windows ML stack, and much-needed drag-and-drop support for bridging WebView2 content seamlessly into native WinUI 3 shells. Microsoft is retiring legacy Win32 the right way Microsoft is finally eating its own dog food and cleaning up Windows 11. Rather than forcing a hard reboot as they did with WinRT, Microsoft is carefully etching out the oldest, ugliest (some might disagree) Win32 UI elements in Windows 11 and replacing them with highly optimized WinUI 3 native code. We recently discovered that the Windows 95-era File Explorer Properties dialog box is finally getting replaced with a modern WinUI 3 version, complete with full dark mode support. The legacy Run dialog (Win + R) has been completely rewritten into a blazing-fast WinUI 3 application. After using both versions, I can confidently say that the new Run dialog is as good, if not better, than the old Run dialog, especially considering how beautiful it looks. Compiled with .NET AOT, the new Run dialog achieves a staggering 94ms median time-to-show, which is surprisingly faster than the old Run dialog, and it proves that modern WinUI 3 frameworks can absolutely match the raw speed and efficiency of legacy Win32 code. As Microsoft continues to replace heavy WebView2 wrappers with native WinUI 3 components, Windows 11 will inevitably stop consuming so much unnecessary memory. We may not have flying cars or moon stations in 2026, but after decades of missteps, we might finally get a fast, native, and consistent Windows operating system that respects its own legacy. The post Microsoft admits Windows 11 is still built on 90s-era Win32, and no one saw it coming appeared first on Windows Latest
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Well look at that! Probably was because of the memory crunch so they wanted to head off flak but they got it anyway.
Microsoft has quietly retracted its own documentation that suggested 32GB RAM is the âno worriesâ upgrade for gaming, and 16GB RAM is the baseline. This support document was likely written using a large language model, and Windows Latest first spotted it before it was taken down. Microsoft also nuked a document that recommended Copilot+ PCs for gaming. Microsoft has a âLearning Centerâ where it publishes guides and marketing articles to promote various Windows features, and these rank well in search results. Itâs mostly used by Microsoft to push a narrative and also make it easier for users to make a choice when they search the web. In the first week of April, Microsoft quietly published a support document titled âGaming features: What the best Windows PC gaming systems have in common.â Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest.com At first, the document might appear to be about Windows 11âs gaming features, but it goes a step further and builds a narrative around the memory requirement. In the support document, Microsoft clearly notes that: âFor most players, 16GB RAM is a practical starting point. Moving to 32GB RAM helps if you run Discord, browsers, or streaming tools alongside your games. That extra memory also gives newer titles more breathing room as memory demands continue to rise.â â Microsoft. â16GB RAM is the baseline; 32GB is the âno worriesâ upgrade,â the company concluded in the support document, which was first spotted by Windows Latest. This was later picked up by other outlets and the gaming community, and it didnât go well with gamers. It wasnât surprising, given that RAM prices are soaring and Windows 11âs obsession with Electron or WebView2 isnât helping. It also created confusion because Microsoftâs official Windows 11 system requirements still list 4GB RAM as the minimum. However, regular low-end PCs are mostly sold with 8GB of RAM. Recently, Microsoft has been mostly pushing Copilot+ PCs, which mandate 16GB of RAM for AI features. Now, over the weekend, Microsoft quietly removed the document, redirected the URL to the Learning Centerâs homepage, and also blocked the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) from surfacing the retracted document. Microsoft wonât tell us what really happened there, but itâs obvious that the company does not want the document to spread further. Iâve reached out to Microsoft for more details, but havenât heard back at the time of writing this story. However, itâs important to note that this is not the first time Microsoft has tried to sell 32GB RAM as the new normal. Microsoft also deletes the February 2026 document that recommended Copilot+ PCs for gaming, and advocated for 32GB RAM In February, Windows Latest spotted a document on the Learning Center that advocated for 32GB RAM for serious gamers, and 16GB for most games. â16 GB is plenty for most games,â the company said. â32 GB is ideal for serious players who run the most demanding titles or use heavy mods.â âIf youâd rather skip the part-matching headache, Copilot+ PCs come pre-configured with the latest CPUs, GPUs, and thermal designs tuned for gaming, so you can dive straight into the action,â Microsoft explained in a document. Now, Microsoft has nuked the February document as well and removed all references to âCopilot+ PCs for gamingâ from the Learning Center. Itâs actually a good move because Copilot+ PC branding doesnât automatically imply a gaming PC. A gaming laptop can be a Copilot+ PC if it has the required NPU (AI chip), but most Copilot+ PCs are still not optimized for gaming. The flagship Copilot+ PC is a Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme hardware, and it cannot run most games natively. Microsoft linking Copilot+ PCs directly with gaming was misleading, especially for buyers who may assume every Copilot+ PC is built for serious gaming. What is a âCopilot+ PC?â Thankfully, Microsoft has removed all documents and recently committed to RAM management improvements. Windows 11 has a memory problem, largely due to Electron-based apps and WebView2 dominating the app store. Satya Nadella also confirmed that Microsoft is trying to optimize Windows for low-RAM devices and win back fans. Microsoft is testing as many as 18 improvements, faster startup apps, taskbar, Start menu, File Explorer (explorer.exe) reliability fixes, and a bunch of other changes to help reduce Windows 11âs RAM appetite. The post Microsoft quietly deletes Windows 11 doc pushing 32GB RAM for gaming after outrage appeared first on Windows Latest
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: I plenty of folks that will be happy about this. Slowly becoming Linux more every day.
Microsoft is rolling out Windows Update improvements that give users more control over how updates are installed while reducing disruption from frequent or poorly timed restarts. [...]
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Nice, quicker to desktop.
Microsoft told Windows Latest that itâs rolling out a new feature that allows you to skip forced Windows 11 updates during device setup (out-of-box experience). Right now, when you clean install or reinstall Windows 11, or buy a new device, you have to go through a long out-of-box experience, also called OOBE. During the OOBE setup, Windows nags you to set up a Microsoft account, buy Microsoft 365, try Xbox Game Pass, and more. While itâs unclear when the calmer OOBE without upsells will begin rolling out, Microsoft is already curbing one of the more annoying aspects of the experience: forced updates. As you might be aware, OOBE goes beyond just upsells and forces you to install newer updates before you can use the device. This can be frustrating, especially if youâre excited to try new hardware right after unboxing it. I ran into this recently. Last week, I gifted myself an ASUS ROG Ally, and as someone who loved the PSP, I was excited to jump into games on my new handheld running Windows 11. But as soon as I booted it up, Windows forced me to install all pending updates, and I couldnât play anything for nearly an hour. It completely killed the excitement. Thankfully, Microsoft says itâs aware of the issue and has been testing a new âUpdate Laterâ toggle in OOBE. The feature was first spotted earlier this year, and itâs now available for everyone in production. All Windows 11 ISOs and recent cumulative updates include the new âUpdate Laterâ toggle. When you click âUpdate Later,â OOBE instructs Windows 11 to keep checking for updates in the background without disrupting the initial setup experience. This allows you to go straight to the desktop. Of course, only after youâve gone through the usual prompts and nudges to set up a Microsoft account. After booting to the desktop, you can open Windows updates and manually pause updates or choose to finish applying all the pending updates. Microsoft is also testing a calendar view that allows you to pause updates for as long as you want. Itâs worth noting that this change isnât live yet, and calendar view is currently broken in the preview builds where we tested the feature, but itâll begin rolling out to everyone in the coming weeks. Microsoft could drop the Microsoft account requirement and reduce upsells in OOBE In addition to greater control over Windows updates, Microsoftâs senior leadership has suggested that the company is mulling an update that would remove the Microsoft account requirement. Right now, Windows 11 forces you to set up your PC with a Microsoft account, especially when you use Windows 11 Home. Of course, you can always use Command Prompt, and one of the scripts/commands can help you bypass the requirement and set up a local account, but itâs not the ideal experience, and itâs becoming increasingly difficult. My Samsung phone also nags me to set up a Google and Samsung account during setup, but I always have the option to skip. You donât have this experience on Windows 11, but that could change soon, only if the rest of the executives in top leadership agree with the idea. Moreover, Microsoft has admitted that Windows 11âs OOBE has upsells (ads to promote Microsoft products). In fact, Microsoft recently added web-based Copilot to the OOBE experience, so you could interact with AI while Windows finishes setting up. Microsoft also added Copilot to Windows 11 OOBE Microsoft is looking into ways to improve the OOBE experience, which is why the Copilot integration wonât roll out widely. But it doesnât mean the company will drop all upsells in the OS. Instead, it plans to reduce upsells and make the first setup experience calmer, at least better than what we have currently. How do you think Microsoft should redesign the current OOBE experience of Windows 11? Let me know in the comments below. The post Tested: Windows 11 setup screen now finally lets you skip forced updates, and go directly to the desktop appeared first on Windows Latest
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Question is - Why do they really want us on AMR instead of x86/CISC chips?
A new powerful chipset has arrived to take on x86 CPUs and Apple's M5, writes Wccftech. The blog Windows Central writes that "Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processors are here" â and they run Windows: Microsoft has done a massive amount of work to improve compatibility and has also convinced developers to embrace Windows 11 on Arm. Users of Windows 11 on Arm PCs spend 90% of their time on Arm-based apps that run natively. Additionally, apps that do not run natively can often run through Prism emulation, which has improved dramatically since launch... [A]pp compatibility issues are overblown by many, and unfortunately those sharing false information are the same folks people rely on to make purchases... Works on Windows on Arm maintains a list of compatible apps and games for the platform. There, you'll see well-known apps like Google Chrome, the Adobe Creative Suite, and Spotify. We also have a collection of the best Windows on Arm apps to help you out. Snapdragon X PCs aren't gaming PCs, but there is a growing library of games that can run on the chips. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: And the push beings it's fifth or sixth try for Windows & ARM....
Windows 11 on Arm has come a long way, but many reviewers and commenters fall back on horror stories of incompatibility that haven't been true for years.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Is this the beginning or Ai push back across the market that might include hardware soon?
Microsoft has started stripping Copilot branding out of Notepad in Windows 11, replacing the old Copilot menu with a more generic "writing tools" label. The AI features themselves aren't going away, but Microsoft seems to be backing off the heavy-handed Copilot branding and extra entry points. Windows Central reports: As promised, Microsoft is now beginning its effort to reduce and remove Copilot branding across Windows 11, with the latest Notepad update for Insiders outright removing the Copilot icon and phrasing. Now, the AI menu is simply called "writing tools," and maintains the same functionality as before. Additionally, Microsoft has also removed references to AI in the Settings area in Notepad. Now, the ability to turn on or off these AI powered writing tools are now listed under "Advanced features." This change is present in the latest preview build of Notepad which is now rolling out to all Windows Insiders. The app version is 11.2512.28.0, and you'll know you have it if you see the Copilot icon replaced with a pen icon instead. [...] For Notepad, it appears Microsoft has opted to replace the Copilot menu with something more generic. It's still the same functionally, but it's no longer leaning on the tainted Copilot brand. Of course, you can still easily turn off all AI features in Notepad if you don't want them. The Verge reports that the "unnecessary Copilot buttons" are also disappearing from the Snipping Tool, Photos, and Widgets. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: Trying to win customers over again as many are eyeing Linux alternatives. Only problem, I'm hearing things about Opensource possibly going to subscriptions just like others because coding for free doesn't help peoples bottom lines.
Weren't these supposed to be 'atypical'? Microsoft is preparing another out-of-band update to address its latest problematic update following reports of installation errors.âŚ
Read the full articleThe Hot Take: So does this mean Microsoft Edge won't be consuming ALL of my RAM? I mean this is probably in response to the RAM usage I would think.
Microsoft has confirmed it will build 100% native apps for Windows 11 and form a new team to spearhead the project. Itâs unclear whether all new apps will be built on a native UI framework like WinUI, but Microsoft has assured that at least some wonât rely on web-based components. Back in 2020, Microsoftâs Windows boss, Panos Panay, said the company wants you to love Windows, not just need it. However, nothing really happened, and Panos eventually left the company. Fast forward to 2026, Windows leadership is promising another revival, but this time, Microsoft appears serious, and weâre seeing internal efforts. Microsoft has announced a major Windows 11 update to address underlying performance issues, make the context menu load faster, reduce File Explorer launch time, move the Start menu to WinUI, and add the ability to move the taskbar. In fact, youâll be able to resize the taskbar and switch to a compact layout, similar to the Windows 10 experience. But it turns out Windows improvements wonât be limited to OS-level components, as Microsoft has also pledged to improve apps. Rudy Huyn, a Partner Architect at Microsoft working on the Store and File Explorer, says he is forming a team focused on building better apps for Windows 11. âIâm building a new team to work on Windows apps! You donât need prior experience with the platform.. what matters most is strong product thinking and a deep focus on the customer,â Huyn wrote in a post on X. âIf youâve built great apps on any platform and care about crafting meaningful user experiences, Iâd love to hear from you.â Many developers are already applying, but some are questioning Microsoftâs approach. One user asked whether these apps would be PWAs (Progressive Web Apps). To our surprise, Huyn dismissed that idea and said the new Windows 11 apps will be 100% native. That said, â100%â is a strong claim. Some so-called native apps today are only partially built with WinUI, with certain features still relying on WebView. A truly native app would be fully built on the WinUI framework, without loading components through WebView. At the moment, we donât know what the new ânativeâ Windows 11 apps are coming our way, and itâs also not clear if Microsoft plans to update existing web-based apps with a native UI. Right now, Microsoft rarely builds native apps for Windows 11. In fact, Windows 11âs built-in video editor, Clipchamp, is also a Progressive Web App. Microsoft Clipchamp is a WebView2 powered video editor Moreover, Microsoftâs two flagship products, Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot, are now web apps. Over the past few years, Microsoft has shown little to no interest in building native apps for Windows 11, and third-party developers have followed the companyâs lead. WhatsApp is one of the popular apps that dropped the native WinUI framework in favor of a Chromium-based web app. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft can convince Meta and other companies to build native apps for Windows 11, or if it will make Microsoft Store rules stricter. We also donât know if Microsoft plans to update existing web-based apps with a native UI. The post Microsoft plans to build 100% native apps for Windows 11, as web apps ruin the OS experience appeared first on Windows Latest
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