[rossy]

In my opinion, the Win32 era only ended recently (and I don't think that's a good thing!)

Back in Windows 10, you could use C and the Win32 API to make a lightweight dependency-free GUI app that looked exactly like the built-in apps like Notepad, File Explorer, Task Manager, and so on. You could even get the same ribbon component they used, which was implemented in a public DLL.

In Windows 11, all those built-in apps have been rewritten with Mica-styled widgets in XAML Islands, and if you want to build your own lightweight dependency-free C app that looks the same way, you'll find out it's not possible. For the first time ever, the Win32 common controls library implements a widget style that's completely different to what the built-in apps look like. Even if you use XAML Islands, if you just use the system XAML, you'll find your app looks like Windows 10, because the Windows 11 look-and-feel is implemented in WinUI, a DLL that you're supposed to vendor with your application.

The era of Windows shipping with a C API that you can use to build perfectly native-looking apps ended when Windows 11 came out 3 years ago, and it's a real shame.