New developer features: Windows App SDK 1.1 finally launches

After Microsoft dismissed the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) more or less as obsolete last year, there is now a major update to the Windows App SDK. Actually, we expected this much earlier. Microsoft released the final version of the new Windows App SDK for developers last November. In fact, it was expected in this context that the group would now really step on the accelerator and start with regular updates, improvements, and innovations.

After all, Microsoft had announced that it wanted to make more developers enthusiastic about the Windows Store in order to be able to offer more applications. Now there is finally news for these efforts. Microsoft has released the Windows App SDK 1.1, the latest version of its development platform for building modern Windows desktop applications.

The release was finally expected before the Build developer conference, but now, almost two weeks later, the update is finally available.

Many new things are waiting for developers

“To help you create native, beautiful, and modern Windows applications, we just released version 1.1 of the Windows App SDK”, writes the Windows Developer Team “Building on version 1.0 released in November 2021, we are excited to add several new features and capabilities to the Windows App SDK while improving stability and performance.”

Project reunion

The Windows App SDK – previously codenamed Project Reunion – is Microsoft’s attempt to bring the modern app capabilities that began in Windows 8 and later rebranded as Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to desktop app developers. It is a collection of libraries, frameworks, components, and tools that the software giant aims to use to provide developers with new Windows features whenever possible. Version 1.1 now offers additional features.

These include support for push notifications, multiple windows, local toast notifications, an environment variables API, a reboot API, and standalone implementation. There are also new WinUI 3 functions such as Mica, the new design that Microsoft has already equipped the Office apps with, for example.