Allan Gault

Microsoft is finally giving Windows 11's modern native framework, WinUI, the attention it deserves, and you should soon start seeing more apps that not only run faster but also look great on Windows! WinUI's biggest update yet means resource-hungry WebView-based apps could finally stop taking center stage. Until now, developers building Windows apps with WinUI often had to rely on third-party libraries or build many basic components themselves, which made web frameworks like Electron an easier alternative. The new WinUI update brings TableView for sorting, filtering, and editing data, native Chart controls for financial dashboards and other visualizations, and InkCanvas and InkToolbar for handwriting and drawing. Microsoft's Chris Anderson admitted at Build 2026 that WinUI still has "a ton of feature gaps in the platform," and these additions finally start addressing some of them. I particularly like that Microsoft is bringing these controls into its own framework instead of expecting developers to depend on third-party libraries for basic functionality. And it's just the start. WinUI and Windows 11 will get even better in the coming months. Microsoft is not slowing down!