Is WinRT available for Desktop apps?

Question

As a long-time Win32 programmer with way too much p/Invoke experience, I'm interested in knowing whether there are any plans to bring the WinRT API system to Desktop apps.

       -Steve

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Answer 1

No, it is not available for desktop apps. Future plans has not been announced yet, but we might hear something while approaching Beta release.

Answer 2

Generally, WinRT can be used from both desktop and metro apps, though specific APIs may be tied to one environment or the other. For example, the contract APIs (share, search, file picker) are only usable from Metro. The Deployment APIs, on the other hand, are only usable from desktop. 

Eventually, the docs will list which environments (desktop, metro or both) a given API works in. 

Note, that while WinRT works for exposing Windows APIs for both desktop and metro, we only support 3rd party WinRT components in metro style applications. Both metadata resolution and component activation depend on information from the .appx manifest, which only exists for Metro style apps.

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Answer 3

It would be great if Windows.Storage would be available for desktop apps. That way I can exchange roaming data and settings between the Metro style and the desktop version of my app.

Answer 4

Thanks, Harry, for finally clarifying this.

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Robert Levy

Answer 5

Can you please let me know steps to use the WinRT from an Desktop app. Is it possible to use the Windows.Data.Xml.Dom from WinRT namespace in the desktop environment ?.

Thanks,

Sandeep

Answer 6

Just to throw my 2 cents into the mix:

Windows on ARM doesn't support classic desktop apps, based on Win32, WPF, Silverlight, or WinForms. This, I am not surprised at, and I agree with this decision. However, given these limitations of the ARM version of windows, I think there needs to be a way for third parties to make desktop apps that target WinRT and are packaged and distributed through the windows store. In fact, it looks like it is already possible in the developer preview to make a WinRT desktop app, though not a "packaged" one:

http://mrspiteri.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/windows-runtime-xaml-for-the-desktop/

This at least provides a good proof of concept. It's possible to support "desktop-style" WinRT apps - it just needs to be polished and extended so that a "desktop-style" WinRT app can be packaged up and distributed through the store, just like its "metro-style" cousins.