Desktop

The desktop foundation: the window manager, the compositor that paints the screen, keyboard and mouse routing, the basic control library, the desktop itself (wallpaper, icons, taskbar and Start menu), and the desktop shell: its services (clipboard, file associations, services, search, accounts, crypto) and its built-in programs. Most of this roadmap domain is superseded by the richer plans in Graphics, so these pages describe what runs today and point at the owning plan for everything else. The authoritative visual specification is the design system.

Roadmap Overviews

One page per desktop foundation roadmap file, each following the page contract.

Document	Topics
Window Management Basics	Window table, dragging, caption buttons and Alt+F4 today; minimize, resize, snap and hotkeys owned elsewhere
Desktop Compositor	The full-repaint compositor loop, partial presents, frame timing; planned damage tracking and VSync
Keyboard and Mouse Input	Today's direct key routing and merged pointer sources; planned modifiers, key events, Tab focus and hotkeys
Control Library	Buttons, labels, text boxes, scroll bars and the Control Gallery; new controls owned by the widget roadmaps
Desktop Shell Today	Wallpaper, taskbar, clock and the current Start menu; Windows 11 shell owned by the graphics roadmaps
Desktop Icons	Three static icons and the icon store today; planned grid, special folders, shortcuts and file-type icons

Desktop Shell Roadmaps

One page per desktop shell roadmap file: the shell services, the built-in programs and the desktop test harness.

Document	Topics
Clipboard	Nothing yet; planned kernel clipboard, Ctrl+C/X/V routing, Win32 API, Win+V history
File Associations, Shortcuts and System Resources	File-type icons and the empty `HKCR` today; planned associations, Open With, `.lnk`, sounds, fonts
Service Manager and Core Daemons	The default user in the environment today; planned services, restart, `sc`, autostart, sysinfo calls
Recycle Bin, ZIP and Task Scheduler	Vendored but unbuilt miniz; planned Recycle Bin, ZIP API and commands, scheduler, `at`
File Search and Indexing	Directory listing only today; planned kernel index, ranked query, `find`, Start and Explorer search
Security and User Accounts	Shipped CSPRNG, Argon2 and tokens; planned accounts, sign-in, lock screen, permissions, elevation
CNG Crypto and Certificate Store	Shipped hashes, Monocypher and Ed25519 verify; planned AES, RSA, X.509, BCrypt, NCrypt, signing, EFS
Terminal	The 80 by 20 Command Prompt today; planned cell grid, ANSI parser, scrollback, tabs, ConPTY
File Manager	Nothing yet; planned Windows 11-style File Explorer
Notepad	Nothing yet; planned gap-buffer editor with undo, find and replace
Control Panel and Settings	Unwired Settings button today; planned CPL host, applets and search
Task Manager, Device Manager and Core Utilities	The `cmd.exe` built-ins today; planned shell commands and eight utility programs
Explorer Shell Host	The kernel desktop and `cmd.exe` today; planned `explorer.exe` and `ShellExecute`
Desktop Test Late-Phase Harness	Shipped FrameStats file, monitor socket and shared-session regression; planned live-desktop tests