Rust for Windows – January 2026 #3866
Description
Welcome to the first issue of the Rust for Windows newsletter for 2026! This newsletter covers news and events related to Rust for Windows, and particularly the windows-rs project.
Quick links
- Repo: https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs
- Getting started: https://kennykerr.ca/rust-getting-started/
- Samples: https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs/tree/master/crates/samples
- Releases: https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs/releases
- Feature search: https://microsoft.github.io/windows-rs/features/
Release
This year has already included a new release of Rust for Windows with release 72 earlier this month focusing on publishing some windows-bindgen updates needed by the Windows operating system.
Notably, this update includes support for emitting function pointer types for delay loading and the ability to generate extern declarations rather than link macros for legacy linking support with old-school import lib files.
Learning series
Part 3 of the Rust for Windows video series is now available on YouTube. This is a series for Windows developers wanting to learn how to make the most of Rust on the Windows platform.
- Part 1 - https://youtu.be/MfwtC55eNzU
- Part 2 - https://youtu.be/OTgIthYqWcY
- Part 3 - https://youtu.be/odSTccFy6ZA
Part 3 introduces some more of the individual crates published as part of Rust for Windows.
What's next
Work continues to improve the experience of Rust developers on Windows and more generally enabling and supporting a broad range of programming languages and frameworks by building the tools and services to enable cross-platform toolchains and frameworks to excel on Windows. The mission is to help developers succeed on Windows by building tools and libraries that developers love.
This includes a renewed focus on metadata for the canonical description of APIs and components, whether they ship inside the OS or in some other way. Metadata is the key to scaling up the generation of bindings for various languages including Rust. We must make it easier for app developers as well as language, library, and framework maintainers to approach Windows APIs so they can take advantage of what is distinctive and unique about Windows and light up those features as they are available.
Work has begun, particularly with the first complete ECMA-335 reader and writer for Rust. This gives us the ability to both read and write what are commonly referred to as .winmd files, popularized by .NET and WinRT, for describing APIs and components and has been extended to describe traditional Win32 and COM APIs as well.
This year the focus turns squarely to the authoring experience with the introduction of the windows-rdl library crate, providing a first-class metadata authoring experience directly in Rust. This is very much "under development" and not ready for prime time, but its easier to iterate, collaborate, and receive feedback in the open. If you are currently struggling with MIDLRT or the Win32metadata tooling for generating metadata, be sure to reach out and I can help you figure out when you can begin to adopt 100% portable Rust tooling instead.
In my next newsletter I'll provide more details and examples, but if you're curious you can follow along with some of the early progress in #3861 and #3865.
Wrapping up
And that's all for this update. Let me know what you think. What would you like to see more of? Are you interested in specific learning series topics? Are you using windows-rs today? Let me know so we can continue to prioritize investment in these tools and services.