{"id":904248,"date":"2026-05-08T03:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/windows-11-still-runs-on-code-from-the-1990s-microsoft-admits\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:12:27","slug":"windows-11-still-runs-on-code-from-the-1990s-microsoft-admits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/windows-11-still-runs-on-code-from-the-1990s-microsoft-admits\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 11 still runs on code from the 1990s, Microsoft admits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\n

\n

\n

$\"Bill$ <\/p>\n

Image: Microsoft<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n

Summary created by Smart Answers AI<\/span><\/p>\n

In summary:<\/h3>\n
\n
PCWorld reports that Windows 11 still relies on code from the 1990s, particularly the Win32 API from Windows 95, for basic functions like right-clicking.<\/li>\n
Microsoft CTO Mark Russinovich acknowledges the unexpected longevity of this legacy code, which remains fundamental to many applications and core Windows operations.<\/li>\n
Previous attempts to modernize the Windows API, including WinRT, failed to fully replace the enduring Win32 system that continues powering today\u2019s operating system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Windows 11 is the most modern, secure, and updated Windows ever\u2014at least that\u2019s what Microsoft keeps saying. But a senior Microsoft executive recently revealed just how much of the underlying technology in Windows 11 is still legacy, all the way from decades ago.<\/p>\n
One such relic in Windows 11 comes into play whenever you right-click a file or launch a desktop app. When you perform such tasks, you\u2019re executing code that was written in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about the Win32 API<\/a>, for which Microsoft still maintains a programming reference support document<\/a>. Although the Win32 API became widespread with Windows 95, it had already been implemented in Windows NT prior to that. (See our visual tour of Windows through history<\/a>!) But the surprising revelation here is that Microsoft never planned for this API to stay relevant for so long.<\/p>\n
Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Azure and founder of Microsoft Sysinternals, explains in a video posted to social media<\/a> by the Microsoft Dev Docs account:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Did anyone expect Win32 to still be going strong in 2026? Mark Russinovich explains why its deep roots in Windows\u2014and the massive ecosystem built on top\u2014have given it serious staying power. Turns out \u201clegacy\u201d can still mean essential.<\/p>\n
SysInternals site: https:\/\/t.co\/BOsLvgAn81<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/6Yd3ipX42p<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2014 Microsoft Dev Docs (@docsmsft) May 6, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Russinovich explains how no one expected Win32 to have such a lasting legacy and why he believes it\u2019s still so important today:<\/p>\n
\n
Did anyone in the 90s expect Win32 to still be a first-class API surface in the year 2026? And I think I can safely answer, \u201cNo.\u201d Nobody, I think, would\u2019ve expected that because we were thinking flying cars and moon stations by the year 2026. Not Win32 that was designed back in Windows 95 days. I think one of the reasons it\u2019s got this staying power is just a fundamental layer inside of Windows that so many apps have built on\u2014so many technologies and ecosystems have been built on top of\u2014that it\u2019s kind of bedrock.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/blockquote>\n
Russinovich continues: <\/p>\n
\n
Now, I think that there\u2019s been various times in Microsoft\u2019s history where we thought we\u2019d reboot the Windows API surface, like WinRT, that actually didn\u2019t play out the way a lot of people expected it to, given still the separation between the client, Win32, and the browser (HTML and JavaScript).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He ends the video talking about a few other tools that were written decades ago yet still live on, including Sysinternals, Sysmon, and ZoomIt. Learn more about why Sysinternals is great for Windows troubleshooting<\/a> and how Sysmon is being added directly into Windows itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\n
<\/body><\/div>\n
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT<\/a> and was translated and localized from German.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t
\n\t\tAuthor: Hans-Christian Dirscherl<\/a>, Managing Editor, PC-WELT\t\t<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Hans-Christian Dirscherl began his IT life with Autoexec.bat and config.sys, Turbo-Pascal and C, Sinix and Wordperfect. He has been writing on almost all IT topics for around 25 years, covering everything from news to reviews and buying guides.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>
\n Elida Drews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Image: Microsoft Summary created by Smart Answers AI In summary: PCWorld reports that Windows 11 still relies on code from the 1990s, particularly the Win32 API from Windows 95, for basic functions like right-clicking. Microsoft CTO Mark Russinovich acknowledges the unexpected longevity of this legacy code, which remains fundamental to many applications and core Windows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":904249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,46,23032],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-904248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-microsoft","8":"category-technology","9":"category-windows"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}