Microsoft CTO Mark Russinovich said that code from the mid-1990s is still the foundation of Windows 11 today.
In a new video, he asked: “Did anyone in the 90s expect Win32 to still be a first-class API surface in the year 2026? And I think I can safely answer, no.”
He called Win32 the “bedrock” of Windows and said that so many apps and tools have been built on top of it.
He also discussed his Sysinternals tools from 1996, saying they are “more relevant than ever” today, which shows how Windows keeps old software working well for many years.