A senior Microsoft engineer has moved quickly to correct a major misunderstanding, stating that the tech giant does not have a concrete plan to eliminate all C and C++ code from its systems by the year 2030. This clarification comes after his initial comments sparked widespread speculation about a complete overhaul of Microsoft's foundational software.
Research, Not a Roadmap: The Core Clarification
The engineer, Galen Hunt, a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, posted an update regarding his earlier LinkedIn announcement. He stated that his message had "generated far more attention than I intended." Hunt made it explicitly clear that Windows is not being rewritten in Rust with the help of AI, contrary to how many in the tech media interpreted his first post.
He emphasized that his team's work is a purely research-focused endeavour. The project, housed within Microsoft's Future of Scalable Software Engineering group, is developing technology to enable large-scale migration of code between different programming languages. Their ambitious goal is encapsulated in the phrase "1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code."
This experimental project combines AI agents with algorithmic infrastructure to process and modify code on a massive scale. However, Hunt stressed this is not an official strategy for Windows 11 or any future versions of the operating system. The team is currently hiring a Principal Software Engineer with Rust experience to advance this research.
Microsoft's Steady March Towards Rust Continues
While Hunt's specific project is a research initiative, it is important to note that Microsoft has been steadily incorporating the Rust language into its products for several years. The company began the process of rewriting certain parts of the critical Windows kernel in Rust back in 2023.
Azure's Chief Technology Officer, Mark Russinovich, has previously stated that Microsoft is "all-in" on Rust for new projects. The primary driver for this shift is security. Rust offers built-in, compile-time protections against common programming errors that lead to serious security vulnerabilities, especially the memory-related bugs that have long plagued codebases written in C and C++.
Hunt's research aims to potentially accelerate such large-scale migrations through AI-assisted translation in the future. However, he clarified that Rust is not necessarily the final destination for all Microsoft code. The project represents the company's broader investment in AI-powered developer tools, though its ultimate application and timeline are far less certain than the initial reports suggested.
Separating Speculation from Software Strategy
The episode highlights how easily cutting-edge research can be mistaken for immediate product strategy in the fast-moving tech world. While Microsoft is genuinely committed to exploring memory-safe languages like Rust and leveraging AI for software development, a full-scale replacement of its legacy code is not on the immediate horizon.
The key takeaways are clear: Microsoft is researching automated code migration at scale, it is actively using Rust in specific new components for security gains, but there is no official plan to wipe out C and C++ by 2030. The future of Windows development will likely involve a gradual, strategic blend of old and new technologies, guided by both research breakthroughs and practical necessity.
