That used to be true but they absolutely do this today :(
Spent so much time trying to repro some functionality only to realize that Windows has an allow list for what apps it listens to for certain APIs.
Spent so much time trying to repro some functionality only to realize that Windows has an allow list for what apps it listens to for certain APIs.
Historically Microsoft had a 100% back compat guarantee for APIs, so the second an API was documented its external interface was frozen in stone forever. There are still APIs around to this day that have misspelled struct fields because someone made a typo 30+ years ago.
If an API isn't documented it is "use at your own risk", although if enough large software starts depending on it, the API may have to be frozen anyway (or compatibility shims put into place) to avoid breaking popular software programs.