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There are several broad categories of Windows applications that you can create with C++. Each has its own programming model and set of Windows-specific libraries, but the C++ standard library and third-party C++ libraries can be used in any of them.

The term *native desktop client application* refers to a C or C++ windowed application that uses the original native [Windows C APIs and/or Component Object Model (COM) APIs](/windows/desktop/apiindex/windows-api-list) to access the operating system. Those APIs are themselves written mostly in C. When creating this kind of application, you have the choice of programming directly against a C-style message loop that processes operating system events, or using *Microsoft Foundation Classes* (MFC), a C++ library that wraps Win32 in a way that is lightly object-oriented. Neither approach is considered "modern" compared to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), but both are still fully supported and have millions of lines of code running in the world today. A Win32 application that runs in a window requires the developer to work explicitly with Windows messages inside a Windows procedure function. Despite the name, a Win32 application can be compiled as a 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) binary. In the Visual Studio IDE, the terms x86 and Win32 are synonymous.

In general, .NET programming is less complex, less error-prone, and has a more modern object-oriented API than Win32 or MFC. In most cases, its performance is more than adequate. .NET features the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for rich graphics, and you can consume both Win32 and the modern Windows Runtime API. As a general rule, we recommend using C++ for desktop applications when you require:

It's also possible to combine the power and efficiency of C++ with .NET programming. You can create a user interface in C# and use C++/CLI to enable the application to consume native C++ libraries. For more information, see [.NET Programming with C++/CLI](../dotnet/dotnet-programming-with-cpp-cli-visual-cpp.md).

The [Component Object Model (COM)](/windows/desktop/com/the-component-object-model) is a specification that enables programs written in different languages to communicate with one another. Many Windows components are implemented as COM objects and follow standard COM rules for object creation, interface discovery, and object destruction. Using COM objects from C++ desktop applications is relatively straightforward, but writing your own COM object is more advanced. The [Active Template Library (ATL)](../atl/atl-com-desktop-components.md) provides macros and helper functions that simplify COM development. For more information, see [ATL COM desktop components](../atl/atl-com-desktop-components.md).

The original C++ support for UWP consisted of (1) C++/CX, a dialect of C++ with syntax extensions, or (2) the Windows Runtime Library (WRL), which is based on standard C++ and COM. Both C++/CX and WRL are still supported. For new projects, we recommend [C++/WinRT](/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-apis/intro-to-using-cpp-with-winrt), which is entirely based on standard C++ and provides faster performance.

In Windows 10, you can package your existing desktop application or COM object as a UWP app, and add UWP features such as touch, or call APIs from the modern Windows API set. You can also add a UWP app to a desktop solution in Visual Studio, and package them together in a single package and use Windows APIs to communicate between them.

A Windows *service* is a program that can run in the background with little or no user interaction. In UNIX, these programs are called *daemons*. For more information, see [Services](/windows/desktop/services/services).