Is WinRT capable of running Win 7 and 8 desktop apps?
windows-8, windows-runtime
Solution
WinRT is not a desktop or an OS, it is an API. Just like the traditional winapi. It is fundamentally different from the winapi, it is COM based instead of C based and it doesn't expose all of the underlying OS capabilities. And runs in a strong sandbox that prevents using the kind of apis that malware likes to use. Roughly, the kind of subset you'd need to run apps on a tablet computer safely and keep a battery going for a while.
You can still run traditional winapi desktop apps on the full version of Windows 8, but not on the upcoming tablet version with an ARM processor. Creating a Metro style app requires using WinRT. There's a language projection available for it in CLR version 4.5 which requires using the ".NET for Metro apps" platform target. It is a heavily trimmed version of the regular .NET Framework, classes and/or methods that are not WinRT compatible are removed. And WinRT specific classes were added, particularly the kind that you use to implement a UI.
Problem
I read a lot of different opinions on it, but is WinRT an actual desktop OS like Win 7 and 8? Will you be able to run fully featured desktop applications and games?