Concurrently using WinRT and Win32 in a C++ application

Question

Concurrently using WinRT and Win32 in a C++ application

abhishek.m 46

We are wanting to build an application which can also be deployed as a Service (with the UI switched off) – and the direction we are WANTING to take is:

Build the core application using Windows APIs i.e. Win32 APIs (for multi-threading, communication, disk-IO, timer routines – including interfacing with device for network interfaces, sleep/wakeup, and other life-cycle events)
Build the UI components ‘only’ using WinUI 3 (for all Visual UI including Printing, and User interaction)

We are expecting the shelf-life of our architecture to be several years from today for current and future evolutions of Windows.

From what we have read and understood so far, our interpretation is that WinRT (which is the gateway to WinUI 3) provides interfaces on top of Windows API (Win32) and does not conflict with being concurrently used in the same application. Is this true? Also, we would like to understand if there is anything we should be particularly careful about in this regard.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 7,666 Microsoft Vendor

Hi @abhishek.m ,
Welcome to Micrsoft Q&A!

Winui3 C++ project supports Win32 API and WinRT.
The technical route you choose is feasible, and you can refer to the documentation below for relevant precautions.
Create your first WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK) project

Thank you.
Junjie

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abhishek.m 46 Reputation points

2022-11-16T10:34:04.383+00:00

Hi @Junjie Zhu - MSFT ,

Thanks for the response.

Adding @21939029 here, who is working with me on this. We did try the link you shared. He can share his observations here.

Thanks !
21939029 936 Reputation points

2022-11-16T10:35:47.157+00:00

Hi @Junjie Zhu - MSFT , thank you for your response.

Adding my observations here.

The link you shared helps us to use WinUI3 with both win32 and winrt by creating a new WinUI3 app, we were trying to make use of WinRT just as the UI component where we already have our project in Win32 structure as the core.

I came across this concept where we can host XAML contents on the Win32 window's HWND, by which we can use both WinRT and Win32[WinRT elements as UI in win32's code structure], [Ref-https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/desktop/modernize/host-standard-control-with-xaml-islands-cpp ]

But this was for the UWP XAML hosting, traditional UWP APIs that reference the WinUI 3.0 NuGet package[Which comes under winrt::Windows Namespace]

But I wanted the "WinUI in Desktop" [classic Win32 app that references the WinUI 3.0 NuGet package, comes under winrt::Microsoft namespace] as the UI component, which is, I wanted to make use of the APIs under the winrt::Microsoft namespace.

I came across Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Hosting but I was not able to find classes like DesktopWindowXamlSource to achieve XAML hosting.

Could you help us to get a detailed understanding of these subjects? And also a detailed understanding of what exactly a "WinUI in UWP" app or a "WinUI in Desktop" app means.

Mainly when we use UIElement under winrt::Microsoft::UI::Xaml as a UI component what difference will that make from using winrt::Windows::UI::Xaml's UIElement as the UIComponent? Or if I'm taking it in the wrong direction

Thank You,
Harshith

Concurrently using WinRT and Win32 in a C++ application

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