Windows 10 UI in WinAPI

Question

I'm trying to attempt to build a UI similar to the ones coming out of Microsoft these days. Particularly those targeting the Windows 10 operating system (a la Office 2016 ).

Currently I use WinAPI, but all of the controls provided by Windows.h and CommCtrl.h appear to be legacy/old style UI elements. I'm particularly looking for the titlebar/menu/status bar elements (the main clientarea will consist of a GDI/Direct2D context, so nothing special necessary there).

I found some information pointing to XAML, but I don't think that's what I want. WPF seems to be a more likely candidate, but I'm not sure if that's the case either.

I would like for this to be 100% native (WinAPI/C&C++), but if there's absolutely no other option I can use C# for the UI and stub in the native code.

Answer 1

You use XAML and either C++, C# or JavaScript to write a Windows Store (previously Metro) app. If you use C++, the app is 100% native, but if you use C# or JavaScript, of course the required virtual machine is used.

The API that your code calls is WinRT, which looks like Silverlight. In addition, your app can also call some, but not all, Win32 API's similar to how .NET apps can call Win32 (eg By using P/Invoke). However, even if you use C++ and thus your app is 100% native, it is still sandboxed like a browser. Meaning it cannot do things like access the entire disk or write to HKLM in the registry. This is for security; a Windows Store app needs to be safe, and thus more limited, like a mobile app you buy from the Apple AppStore. This means that you can't call eg CreateFile . This says:

Minimum supported client Windows XP [desktop apps only]

When MS mentions 'Desktop Apps' as above, they mean Win32 apps. This excludes Windows Store Apps. But this is confusing, because on Win 8/8.1, these Windows Store apps are full screen, but on Windows 10 they are resizeable and overlapping, appearing next to, and mixed in with traditional Win32 apps like Explorer and Task Manager. So even though they appear on the same desktop as Desktop apps, they are not Desktop apps.

I believe if a Windows Store app also targets Windows Phone 10, Windows IoT, etc. then it is called a Windows Universal app.