One of the few Windows utilities that was allowed to be based on .NET, in Vista and Windows 7, was Narrator, the screen reader shipped with the OS. But Narrator

One of the few Windows utilities that was allowed to be based on .NET, in Vista and Windows 7, was Narrator, the screen reader shipped with the OS. But Narrator was rewritten in C++ for Windows 8. That was still before I got there, but of course I asked about the history, since I was on the Narrator team. I think the deciding factor for doing the rewrite was the sluggish startup of the .NET version. I guess the need to run on Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile was likely another factor, though now I don't recall if my teammates specifically said that it was.