Windows 11 modern apps launch 50% faster! 8x smaller in size

Microsoft claims that modern apps (Modern App) developed on Windows 11 based on the Windows App SDK are now much improved, launching faster and smaller.

The Windows 11 App SDK is not a development framework, but a combination of a series of development tools that combine traditional Win32 apps with modern UWP apps that have a more modern experience.

However, one of the drawbacks of such apps is that they tend to start up slowly, and some animations have significant delays, especially when clicking buttons and such.

Now, the Windows App SDK adds support for “native AOT”, that is, Ahead-Of-Time compilation (Ahead-Of-Time compilation), just as Android experienced in the early years.

Initial testing within Microsoft has shown that:

• - App startup loading time can be reduced by up to 50%.
• - App installers can be shrunk by up to 8x (technically to 1/8).
• - Self-contained apps can also be reduced by up to 2x

It's also worth noting that the Windows App SDK no longer includes the Edge WebView2 SDK, which can also be reduced in size, but will instead use NuGet to access the Edge WebView2 SDK when needed.