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Microsoft’s growing emphasis on security-first development is steadily pushing C and C++ out of the company’s core strategy, reshaping priorities across its software ecosystem.
For decades, C and C++ have formed the backbone of Windows and countless low-level software systems.
However, Microsoft’s internal security assessments increasingly point to a troubling reality: a significant share of critical vulnerabilities stems from memory management flaws inherent in these languages.
According to Microsoft’s Security Response Center, buffer overflows and pointer-related errors remain among the most exploited weaknesses in modern cyberattacks.
Company officials argue that patching alone is no longer sufficient to address these structural risks. As part of its broader Secure Future Initiative, Microsoft has begun limiting the use of C and C++ in new system components.
Rust has increasingly taken center stage in Microsoft’s modernization plans. Designed to prevent memory safety issues at compile time, Rust offers performance levels comparable to C and C++ while significantly reducing the risk of entire classes of security flaws.
Microsoft engineers have already started integrating Rust-based components into parts of the Windows codebase, including low-level system tools. A senior engineer publicly stated that the long-term objective is to drastically reduce—and eventually eliminate—C and C++ code across Microsoft’s platforms, a remark that sparked widespread debate in the developer community.
The transition is also evident in Microsoft’s developer ecosystem. While Visual Studio continues to support C++ extensively, the company’s recent tooling investments focus heavily on NET, Azure-native services, TypeScript, and Rust. Official documentation increasingly recommends memory-safe languages for new projects, particularly those involving security-critical infrastructure.
Presentations at Microsoft’s Build developer conference reinforce this message, positioning C and C++ primarily as legacy technologies required for maintaining existing systems rather than building future platforms.
Despite the shift, industry experts caution against declaring the end of C and C++. Game engines, embedded systems, and hardware-level programming still rely heavily on their unmatched control over system resources. What is changing, however, is their strategic importance within Microsoft.
According to reporting by The Economic Times, Microsoft aims to replace a substantial portion of its internal C and C++ codebase with safer alternatives by 2030. This signals not an abrupt abandonment but a deliberate move away from making these languages central to future development.
Microsoft’s evolving stance reflects a wider transformation across the software industry, where security and maintainability are increasingly prioritized alongside performance. C and C++ will remain foundational in computing history, but within Microsoft’s ecosystem, they no longer represent the future.
Rather than a dramatic farewell, the shift marks a gradual realignment—one that could redefine how the next generation of software is built.
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