Updated: July 11, 2020 (September 26, 2011)

Windows Runtime

Michael analyzed and wrote about Microsoft's operating systems, including the Windows client OS, as well as compliance and governance. Michael... more

Windows Runtime (WinRT) is a new runtime library that provides Windows system services (such as networking, graphics, and device access) to Metro applications running on Windows 8. The library is separate from the Win32 APIs that support unmanaged code on Windows 7 and previous Windows versions and the .NET Framework class libraries and Common Language Runtime (CLR), which are used by managed languages such as C# and Visual Basic (VB).

The left side of the illustration shows that developers can build Metro applications for Windows 8 with a view (user interface) and models and controllers (application logic) written in C or C++ (unmanaged code), C# or VB (managed code), HTML5 and CSS3, or XAML. This is the same set of languages supported for developing traditional desktop applications for Windows 8 (the right side of the illustration), but user interface controls and APIs to system services differ between Metro-style and desktop application development.

System services for Metro applications are provided by the WinRT APIs. For traditional desktop applications, such services are provided by Internet Explorer, the .NET Framework or Silverlight, and Win32.

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