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Microsoft has announced plans to build fully native applications for Windows 11, signaling a significant shift away from the web-based wrappers that have quietly powered many of the operating system’s built-in apps for years. The company is forming a new team to lead the effort and is actively recruiting developers to execute it.
What ‘Native’ Means — and Why It Matters
When you open an app on your Windows 11 computer, there’s a good chance it isn’t as ‘Windows-built’ as it looks. Over the past several years, Microsoft has relied increasingly on web technologies — essentially running website-style code inside a lightweight browser shell — to power many of its built-in applications. Tools like Clipchamp, Copilot, and portions of the Start menu have relied on this approach, which uses frameworks like React and WebView rather than Windows’ native UI system, WinUI.
The tradeoffs are real and noticeable. Web-wrapped apps tend to use more memory, launch more slowly, and respond less crisply than apps built directly on Windows’ own development tools. They can also feel inconsistent — visually similar to native Windows apps but behaviorally different in subtle ways. For power users and anyone running older hardware, the difference is often frustrating.
Microsoft’s new plan, described as building apps that are ‘100% native,’ means constructing software entirely using Windows-native technologies like WinUI and the Windows App SDK — without relying on WebView components to render key parts of the interface. In practice, this should mean faster launch times, lower memory usage, and a more consistent experience across the operating system.
The New Team Behind the Push
The initiative was announced by Rudy Huyn, a Partner Architect at Microsoft who works on the Store and File Explorer. In a post on X, Huyn said he is building a new team specifically to work on Windows apps, and that the role does not require prior Windows development experience. ‘What matters most is strong product thinking and a deep focus on the customer,’ he wrote, adding that the new apps will be ‘100% native.’
The creation of a dedicated team is notable. Microsoft has publicly committed to native app development before — most recently with a native version of Copilot that shipped in 2025 — only to reverse course. An updated version of Copilot currently rolling out in Insider builds has drawn criticism for switching back to a web wrapper, with its version number matching Microsoft Edge rather than the standalone application. That pattern has eroded trust among developers and enthusiasts who have watched Microsoft cycle through frameworks repeatedly.
The new team appears to be an attempt to make the native-app commitment structural rather than product-by-product.
Part of a Broader Windows 11 Overhaul
The native app initiative sits alongside a broader performance update Microsoft has been preparing for Windows 11. That update includes reducing File Explorer launch times, making context menus load faster, moving the Start menu to WinUI, and adding more flexible taskbar customization — including the ability to resize and reposition the taskbar and switch to a compact layout reminiscent of Windows 10.
Microsoft has described these changes as part of a push to reduce interaction latency across the operating system’s shared interface infrastructure. The Start menu, which currently uses React for portions of its logic layer, has been acknowledged as slower than it could be because of the overhead that web-based components introduce. Moving it to WinUI is expected to make it more responsive on a range of hardware configurations.
Together, the performance update and the native app pledge represent what observers are describing as a meaningful course correction for Windows 11 — an operating system that launched in 2021 to mixed reception and has faced persistent criticism for feeling unfinished in key areas. Whether Microsoft sustains the native-first commitment this time, given its history of reverting to web approaches for convenience, remains the central question.
