The prospect of modernizing a foundational and colossal codebase like the Windows operating system has fueled intense speculation within the tech community, especially following a rumor that Microsoft was embarking on a complete rewrite in the Rust programming language. This speculation, which suggested a bold plan to eliminate all C and C++ code by 2030, ignited discussions about the future of system-level development. However, the narrative of an impending company-wide mandate to adopt Rust for its flagship product has been officially clarified as a misunderstanding. The initial excitement stemmed from a job posting by Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Galen Hunt, which mentioned a personal “ambitious goal” to replace these established languages. This personal vision was mistakenly interpreted as a formal corporate strategy, leading to widespread reports of a massive engineering pivot. In reality, the initiative in question is not a product roadmap for Windows but an advanced internal research project with a different, though equally ambitious, objective focused on the underlying technology of software evolution itself.
The Reality of the Internal Research Project
The project at the heart of the rumor is an internal initiative led by the “Future of Scalable Software Engineering” team, a specialized group operating within Microsoft’s CoreAI division. The primary objective of this research is not to champion a specific programming language but to pioneer cutting-edge technology that can automate the large-scale translation of code from one language to another using artificial intelligence. This endeavor involves the development of sophisticated static analysis and machine learning tools designed to facilitate AI-assisted code migration on a massive scale. The team’s focus is on building a powerful and versatile engine for modernization rather than executing a one-time rewrite of a particular product. By treating C and C++ as the source languages for their current experiments, the researchers are tackling some of the most complex and deeply-entrenched codebases in the industry. This work represents a strategic investment in creating foundational technology that could, in the future, be applied to a wide range of software products and legacy systems, making the process of modernization faster, more reliable, and less resource-intensive.
The North Star Goal and the Role of Rust
This research project is guided by a particularly ambitious “North Star” goal: to develop technology that enables a single engineer to successfully migrate one million lines of code within a single month. This target underscores the scale of automation and efficiency the team aims to achieve. For the purpose of developing and demonstrating this capability, the project is currently using Rust as the target language. Galen Hunt clarified that Rust was chosen as a modern, memory-safe language to prove the concept and refine the AI translation technology, but it is not necessarily the definitive endpoint for all future migrations. The selection of Rust served the research’s need for a robust and distinct target to test the limits of the AI-powered tools. Ultimately, the clarification revealed that while Microsoft was not committed to rewriting Windows in Rust, its investment in AI-driven tools for massive codebase modernization signaled a significant strategic direction. The focus was firmly on pioneering the future of software engineering through intelligent automation, a development that held profound implications for how the industry might approach legacy code in the years to come.
