> However, for no reason I can understand, Microsoft has decided that even the latest versions of Windows 11 only get .NET 4.8.1 preinstalled.

.NET has new releases every year, supported for 2 or 3 years. That’s not really compatible with Windows release cycles. Also, if Windows 11 25H2 shipped .NET 8, and now Windows 11 26H2 would ship .NET 10, apps which depend on version 8 might break. Easier to just think of .NET as a runtime like Java or Python.

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Regarding tray icons, 1Password, Signal, and Discord are all Electron apps, so they are using Chrome’s UI toolkit, and its menu component.

Myself, I’m happy with WPF. Starting with .NET 9, it comes with a really good WinUI-style theme.

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NetMageSCW 3 hours ago | parent [-]

.Net has always been hugely backwards compatible and breaking e.g. .Net 8 apps which will run out of support in November 2026. How is constantly needing to update .Net any different from constantly needing to update any other part of Windows?

Ideally they would just install newer .Net releases side by side and uninstall .Net releases as they drop out of support.

	▲	Kwpolska 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Microsoft promises things included with Windows will be supported ~forever. Adding modern .NET into the mix would break this promise and add more churn. Automatically uninstalling .NET runtimes would break apps, and Microsoft will be to blame, not app vendors who failed to upgrade to the latest .NET. An app built for .NET 8 can run on .NET 10, assuming no backwards-incompatible changes in the runtime and system libraries, but this behavior is opt-in.