WinFX: The .NET Framework Takes Center Stage

The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, will offer a new set of APIs called WinFX. Designed to replace the aging Win32 APIs that have been in use since the introduction of Windows NT in 1992, WinFX is built around the .NET Framework, meaning that developers will access the new features of Longhorn, such as the new graphics engine and Web services systems, primarily through the Framework and managed code. WinFX could make Windows simpler and more relevant to developers, but tools that help make the leap to WinFX could be slow to arrive.

Why Replace Win32?

Although it has been extended many times, Win32 is essentially the same API set that was introduced with Windows NT. In fact, it is largely the same API set that was introduced with Windows in 1985, although it wasn’t called Win32 until Microsoft moved to 32-bit Windows and extended the APIs to follow suit. With WinFX, Microsoft hopes to ease several problems that have grown steadily worse, such as the following:

Close the “tools gap.” While Win32 has remained largely the same, the world around it has changed dramatically. Win32 is not directly relevant to a large number of developers who rely on tools such as Visual Basic to provide them with APIs for building applications. This has sometimes lead to a “tools gap” in which Microsoft adds APIs to the OS but many developers, particularly corporate IT developers who rely heavily on tools such as Visual Basic, are unable to access the new APIs until their preferred developer tools incorporate them. Microsoft hopes that by making an OS API that is directly usable by both commercial ISVs and corporate IT developers, it will reduce the time between development of a new feature and its actual use by developers.