C++/WinRT and C++/CX are not the same; they are different enough that Microsoft Docs has a whole page explaining how to move from C++/CX to C++/WinRT: https://

C++/WinRT and C++/CX are not the same; they are different enough that Microsoft Docs has a whole page explaining how to move from C++/CX to C++/WinRT: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-apis/move-to-winrt-from-cx https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-a... In particular only the older C++/CX has ^ pointers or other Microsoft-specific C++ language extensions. C++/WinRT is standard C++. Writing your code using WRL (Windows Runtime C++ template Library) is good if you want to learn enough about how the Windows Runtime extensions to COM work in order to debug effectively. However, its close relationship to the underlying COM and Windows Runtime APIs also makes it far too verbose to quickly write good API-consuming and -producing code, in my opinion.