Everything will be a web app. That was once the assumption for the PC, even if the emergence of smartphone apps shifted the emphasis somewhat. But now Microsoft wants to put the focus back on running apps actually built for the Windows operating system.

Rudy Huyn, a Partner Architect at Microsoft, recently made an appeal on X (via Windows Latest) for software devs to form a new team that will build Windows apps. When queried over the specific nature of those apps, Huyn was very clear. "100% native", he said.

That "100% native" claim will take some proving. It implies apps that are built with WinUI with no WebView content. The latter, essentially, is a mini browser that apps can use to display web content.

Many Windows apps and indeed elements of Windows itself, including even some parts of the Settings app that seem like they were natively coded for Windows, are actually running on WebView underneath it all. Generally, that's because it's faster and easier to serve up content and application services via a browser than to code an app. Indeed, Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot are WebView apps.

Likewise, even third-party devs that once coded native apps have been moving to browser-based alternatives, an obvious example being WhatsApp. That particular move is arguably a good example of why web apps can be problematic. Just for starters, running a WebView 2 app means spooling up a Chromium browser instance in the background, which can be much more memory-intensive.

Some users report that just loading up the WhatsApp login screen with the WebView version soaks up 300 MB, whereas the old native app used under 20 MB. With the new version of WhatsApp up and running, it can consume multiple gigabytes of memory, while the native app typically remains under 300 MB.

This move follows a broader public push from Microsoft to improve what you might call the "fundamentals" of Windows 11. Instead of leaning even further into AI frills and features, Microsoft is working on aspects such as reducing the disruption from Windows Update, making the taskbar more configurable, and even removing the need to log in online via a Microsoft account when setting up a new Windows 11 install. Yes, really.

Funnily enough, this all ties in neatly with an observation made by a former Microsoft operative. Former Windows development lead Mikhail Parakhin said he'd previously worked on a so-called 20/20 project, which aimed to reduce both the Windows install size and idle memory consumption by 20%.

Microsoft hasn't committed to those targets publicly, but it has made "lowering the baseline memory footprint for Windows" a core Aim. Shifting as much app code as possible from WebView to native would certainly help with that.

All in all, this seems like yet another indication that Microsoft has now got its priorities right with Windows. Instead of ramping up the AI slop, Microsoft appears to be focusing on the nuts and bolts of the OS itself. If that's true, it's very, very good news indeed, especially when you consider how much system memory costs these days.

Ah, good old Rufus. Where would we be without you? Well, it seems the answer is a world with far fewer Windows 11 machines.

October 14 is the last day Windows 10 users will get critical support from Microsoft as part of their OS package. This means no new features going forward, unless you specifically sign up for the Extended Security Update program.

Although Windows 10 machines will still function from October 15, every day thereafter poses a security risk to machines without these updates. As your device ages, it becomes ever more vulnerable to bad actors.

This is where our good pal Rufus comes in. It is an open-source program that creates bootable drives, which can be used to install the likes of Linux or Windows on a machine. Crucially, Rufus can be used to bypass hardware requirements for Windows 11 and can even be used to make offline Microsoft accounts. If you plan on upgrading to Windows 11, Rufus is how we recommend doing so.

How to use Rufus to upgrade to Windows 11

You will need to download two things to get Windows 11 up and running via Rufus (and have a USB drive ready). First, naturally enough, is Rufus, which you can download from the official website. You can grab a portable version of the software, one for ARM64 devices, or the standard Windows x64 one. The standard one is the one you want in most cases.

After this, you need to grab an ISO for Windows 11 via the Microsoft website (at the very bottom of the page). Pick Windows 11 (multi-edition ISO for x64 devices) in the drop-down menu, select your language and get it downloaded.

From here, boot up the Rufus application from your main device and click your new Windows ISO in boot selection. Then click Standard Windows Installation in Image Option. Hitting start at the bottom will open up the Windows User Experience tab, which allows you to customise how this boot drive operates.

You can check to remove Windows 11's strict hardware requirements or even force your install to use an offline Windows account, which Microsoft has been trying to block our ability to do for years.

Using Rufus will remove all data on the USB drive you want to install it on, so make sure to clear off anything important before turning it into your boot drive.

From here, simply plug the stick into any device you want to install Windows 11. Your device should be able to pick up the boot drive automatically, but you can also choose to install from BIOS as your system starts up, should you run into any problems. To get into the BIOS, you will need to press F1/F2/F10/Del (annoyingly, it depends from manufacturer to manufacturer) as you boot up your computer.

Why you should use Rufus

Being able to update easily and straight from a boot drive is handy in itself, but one of Rufus' superpowers is that it can be used to get around Windows 11 hardware requirements.

Though far less of an issue now (due to the inevitable encroachment of time phasing out older unsupported hardware), when Windows 11 launched in 2021, it required your rig to have a TPM. TPM 2.0 is a hardware-specific bit of security technology, and is seldom found in CPUs pre-2016. It essentially stores important cryptographic data used for enhanced security. However, should your rig be so old as to not to pass this requirement, Rufus can be used to get around it.

Rufus also gets around the requirement to have/make an online Windows account. Simply click to remove both requirements when you create your Windows 11 boot drive, and you can upgrade quickly, easily, and for free. However, there are still reasons to update the old-fashioned way.

Why you might not want to use Rufus

Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 (when you have the right hardware and already have a Microsoft account) can actually be done straight from the Windows update settings on your PC.

If you have no reason not to update and don't want to work around Microsoft's nonsense, you can do it without needing a USB drive or any other downloads.

If your CPU is fairly recent and you still can't seem to pass the TPM 2.0 requirements, there's a chance the crucial security setting has not been enabled on your PC. You can turn it on easy enough through your BIOS, and Microsoft has put together a good guide on how to do so on a range of motherboards.

When directly upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you can't use Rufus to bypass the account requirements set by Microsoft. However, there's another way around those, if you'd like to follow me down this dark alleyway to discuss some illicit business.

All you need to do is hit Ctrl + Shift + J during the Windows 11 set-up process, at the Secondary Keyboard Layout screen, but before the account sign-up section. From here, type:

WinJS.Application.restart("ms-cxh://LOCALONLY")

After this, hit enter, then close the console, and you can make an offline account. Though Microsoft will bug you to log in forevermore in your Settings.

Previously, you could just press Shift + F10 to open the command prompt during setup, then type 'oobe\bypassnro' to get around the online account requirement. However, that was disabled by Microsoft last March. My only worry here is that Microsoft is clearly going some way to stopping offline accounts, so it can't be guaranteed this fix will stay around indefinitely.

No matter which way you install Windows 11, make sure you get all the latest drivers after your update. As a chronic "I'll update it when I run into problems" person, it's always good to have a digital cleanup every now and then.

Rufus has been a bit of a hero to many PC gamers over the last few years, as it has managed to brute force its way past many of our least favourite Windows decisions.

Though you can get around the offline account problems on-device, it's hard not to look at Rufus as a beacon of hope for whatever Microsoft has cooking up next. It's a good safety plan should Microsoft continue to filter out other workarounds in trying to foist its account onto unsuspecting users.

The era of the AI PC is upon us, with Microsoft forcing Copilot on every 365 product like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. When the time comes to swap to what I assume will be called Windows 12, I'm hoping Rufus will keep the ever-growing creep of AI at bay for a while longer.