alt Hacker NewsWhat are you talking about? None of it is relevant to the point i am making.
Also you do not need COM to program in C/C++ directly on Windows API since they are all C interfaces anyway. COM is just an architecture you choose to use or not depending upon your needs.
Ever since managed languages/virtual machines became "standard" programming platforms most Windows programmers only write to these. Everything is at such a high-level now that only curious programmers delve deeper into the rabbit-hole.
You definitely do, unless you are stuck in Windows XP view of computing world.
It is like using ReactOS instead.
All Windows APIs since Vista are delivered via COM.
How much Windows development are you doing actually?
Not that much apparently.
Also someone has to surface Windows APIs to managed languages, they don't appear by magic.