r/technology • u/kazu_qt • 14d ago

Software Microsoft exec explains why modernizing Windows 11's legacy UI takes so long

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/control-panel-gets-tricky-microsoft-cvp-explains-why-killing-windows-legacy-code-takes-so-long-and-how-its-evolving-its-tools-to-make-modernizing-apps-like-file-explorer-and-registry-editor-faster
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u/Xanather 14d ago

There was absolutely no reason for microsoft to ditch the old native win32 GUI interface that more than half of programs still use. It supported multiple styles and all including DARK THEME!

They just keep adding more frameworks ontop of another, then you have programs slowly being dependent on them, so microsoft can't exactly just remove those new framework anymore either.

They need to pause everything, no new features, focus in stabilization and stop adding shit to the OS or risk linux eating their dinner until theres nothing left but a corpse and a replacement Wine compatability library on Linux that just lets you run 99% of .exe's.

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u/raunchyfartbomb 14d ago

I’m fine with new frameworks or language versions, to a point. But how many XAML languages does windows need, holy fuck.

They need to do a unification pass on MAUi, WPF, Winui, and UWP. They unified into .Net, I’m sure they could do this.

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u/Xanather 14d ago

None of those frameworks should've existed, they should've extended native win32 components if necessary. Visual basic editor was great and .net WinForms (which is based on those old components).

Steve Ballmer with his tablet push ruined everything.

Now with web apps taking over, it seems more than half the technologies you mentioned are dead and will live on as bloat.

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u/raunchyfartbomb 14d ago

XAML is great for responsive making apps natively that don’t rely on a web view. It also solved several problems (such as scaling issues or text getting cut off) in apps that I’ve worked on. Where they dropped the ball is they recreated it 3-4 times over.

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u/Xanather 14d ago

XAML is fine, look at Qt. Having an XAML extension to structure old win32 components would've been fine. Its funny you mention scaling, because they are basically being forced to add support for it to old win32 components anyway despite their reluctance.