So?
If you dislike the app store monopolies, it's stupid to herd your users into the store. Tell your users that your app is too sophisticated to run in dummy mode. Bonus: Sell to all the Win7 holdouts.
If you love app stores (monopoly rents be damned), you rank the store ecosystems and then never write a Windows version.
So regardless of Win32 or UWP, everything will eventually be sandboxed.
Windows 7 is the new XP.
OpenFile() could be considered deprecated but the official documentation doesn't mark it as deprecated.
You missed the point that these API have been stable for decades and software will continue to work without any change.
"OpenFile() has been deprecated and replaced by CreateFile(), which was superseded by CreateFile2()."
I never said CreateFile() was deprecated. Superseded is not the same thing.
> OpenFile() could be considered deprecated but the official documentation doesn't mark it as deprecated.
"Note This function has limited capabilities and is not recommended. For new application development, use the CreateFile function."
Looks pretty much an euphemism for deprecated.
> You missed the point that these API have been stable for decades and software will continue to work without any change.
Not when Windows puts a container around what they can see.
Win7 is a focal point of some importance: It's where developers who don't want to be pushed into app store indentured servitude join up with the Windows compatible systems, Wine and ReactOS.
Everything before Win7 is not a focal point because it's too old. Everything after Win7 is not a focal point because nobody can handle the update threadmill. By elimination, it's Win7.
Win7 is not the new XP; it's the future of stability-oriented Windows compatible computing.