[nashashmi]

Windows 7 and Vista did not get a ported version of Windows store nor a ported version of uwp apps. While win32 can do both platforms. That was what killed the windows store.

Windows 8 1st edition was just a start menu with a uwp focus, with a desktop as a third class citizen. When win8 start menu with uwp could have been offered as a single app for Windows 7 platform. That would have been a great buzz pavong the way for Windows phone and windows rt.

[Shorel]

The strength of windows market-share lies in the backwards compatibility with win32.

Users don't want uwp or whatever new stack MS wants to impose. They want continuous access to their existing purchases of win32 apps. That MS calls win32 'legacy' matters very little.

[vetinari]

This.

Win32 lives because there are millenia of man-hours invested into Win32 applications. If one day Win32 would disaapear, they would be not ported to UWP or other framework of the day.

Whey would be ported to the Web. But while Win32 lives, the cheapest path is to maintain them as Win32.