The Future of Windows App Development is Getting Clearer (Premium)

With Build 2021 now in the rearview mirror, we have a clearer picture of the paths forward that Microsoft is providing for Windows app developers. Nothing major has changed since last year, but Windows developers now have several major milestones coming in late 2021 and some decisions to make.

First, a couple of general thoughts and observations.

Though I try to keep my knowledge about Windows application development as up-to-date as possible, I’m not a developer, professional or otherwise. I’m more of an outside observer---kind of like Michael Pollan, when it comes to writing about health and nutrition---but hopefully a semi-educated one. Either way, some of what you read here will be a straightforward recitation of what Microsoft is doing. And some will be my opinion.

Going over the Build 2021 session list, it’s clear that Windows app development takes a backseat in Redmond to Azure and Microsoft’s other developer initiatives. I wish things were different for personal reasons, but Microsoft’s cloud focus is probably warranted. And while one must really dig through the Build content to figure out what the client development story looks like these days, some clear trends do emerge for developers of existing and new apps.

I see three major paths for Windows apps developers---Project Reunion, MAUI, and web apps---and each relies, in its own way, on .NET 6, which is shipping in November. So let’s dive in.
Project Reunion
Announced at Build 2020, Project Reunion is an overdue attempt to blend the best of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) with legacy development platforms like Win32/C++, Windows Forms, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

There are two big innovations here. First, Microsoft is decoupling new developer features from specific Windows 10 versions and making them available across all supported Windows 10 versions. And second, it is bringing developer features that were previously locked in UWP to those legacy dev platforms.

I was originally pretty gung-ho about Project Reunion, but after evaluating early releases, I determined that it wasn’t really the way forward, just as UWP wasn’t the way forward. That is, Project Reunion isn’t for new apps---and, really, what developer would ever choose to create a Windows-only application in the 2020s anyway?---but is instead solely for developers with existing apps that need some modern feature updates. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. In fact, it’s how Microsoft should have handled UWP when Windows 10 was first released in 2015.

If you’re interested in Project Reunion, I recommend checking out the Build 2021 session What's new for Windows desktop application development with Andrew Clinick and Thomas Fennel. There’s some forced “Between Two Ferns”-style humor that most won’t get and is never funny, but the two provide a good overview of Project Reunion, where it’s at now, and when we can expect to see a shipping, GA...