Windows – Why is it said that WinRT replaces the Windows API

apidesktop-bridgewinapiwindowswindows-runtime

In almost every text about the new WinRT API I came to statements like "WinRT is the new API for Windows and replaces the old Win32 API". Since WinRT aims the development Windows Store apps, this statement to me does not seem to hold true.

There are lots of applications I just can not imagine to be done with WinRT (e.g. Microsoft Office, Adobe Products, 3D Designer Programs and even Visual Studio). These applications still need the functionality of the Windows API (aka Win32).

So why is it so often said, that the WinRT API replaces the Windows API?

Best Answer

This has kind of changed, recently due to a couple reasons, but here's the rundown of why you want to use WinRT over Win32 in current Windows application development (circa 2017):

WinRT is leveraged by UWP apps
Win32 apps can be converted into UWP apps using the Desktop Bridge
Windows 10 S requires all apps to go through the Windows Store

Ergo, using WinRT will invoke less time spent converting projects and code for the new Windows 10 S Store-only application paradigm.

In regards to WinRT vs. Win32API vs. .NET, both .NET and WinRT are partially built with Win32; IIRC, they use subsets of it. At least that's what was communicated back in 2012 from ArsTechnica in Peter Bright's article, "Turning to the past to power Windows’ future: An in-depth look at WinRT". That's where this stack chart comes from, or at least it was used there:

Example

@echo off
my_nify_exe.exe
if errorlevel 1 (
   echo Failure Reason Given is %errorlevel%
   exit /b %errorlevel%
)

Warning: If you set an environment variable name errorlevel, %errorlevel% will return that value and not the exit code. Use (set errorlevel=) to clear the environment variable, allowing access to the true value of errorlevel via the %errorlevel% environment variable.

Windows – How to upgrade Git on Windows to the latest version

Since Git 2.16.1(2) you can use

C:\> git update-git-for-windows

In version between 2.14.2 and 2.16.1, the command was

C:\> git update

(It was later renamed to avoid confusion with updating the local repository, e.g. like svn update does it.)

That command does not exist in Git 2.13 and before.

If this errors with "is not a git command" then either you don't actually have Git for Windows, or your version is very old.

In which case, simply get the latest installer from https://git-scm.com/download (check whether you want 32- or 64-bit) and run it to upgrade.

If you already have the latest version it does nothing, in which case you can manually run the installer to reinstall.

C:\> git update-git-for-windows
Git for Windows 2.17.0.windows.1 (64bit)
Up to date

Best Answer

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Windows – How to upgrade Git on Windows to the latest version

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