UWP, Older Windows Frameworks Becoming More Compatible

• Traditional Windows desktop application development technologies are receiving renewed Microsoft investment and becoming more compatible with the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
• This direction reduces risk for teams continuing to use older Windows desktop development technologies for new solutions and reduces the urgency to shift to UWP.
• UWP user interface elements can make applications easier to use, improve visual design, and add ink and touch support.

Microsoft is making traditional Windows desktop application technologies, such as Win32, Windows Forms, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), more compatible with the newer Universal Windows Platform (UWP). The company claims the older technologies will continue to receive investment and no longer emphasizes UWP as the best choice for new solutions. Teams could benefit from evaluating UWP elements for their potential to enhance existing projects that use older technologies.

UWP Offers Touch, Mobile UI Elements

UWP offers developers user interface (UI) elements and a set of APIs called the Windows Runtime (sometimes called WinRT) to produce Windows applications that work well with touch-based user input and mobile devices with various screen sizes. UWP can be used with the C#, Visual Basic, and C++ programming languages, along with Microsoft’s Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), to implement UIs. (JavaScript, DirectX, and HTML can also be used with UWP.)