Microsoft has accepted Rust programming language as one of the most promising updates for programming Windows nucleus. Despite being a relatively new programming language, Rust has already proven to be effective in solving memory errors in Windows. Corporate programmers at Microsoft have diligently rewritten crucial parts of the operating system on Rust, making significant improvements to the performance and safety of the base code.
Rust was created by Graidon Hoar while working at Mozilla, the first company that officially accepted Rust for its experimental browser engine Servo. As a quick programming language, Rust offers native performance for various types of applications, including computer software, low-level devices, and built-in devices. Rust was developed to ensure memory safety, thereby eliminating many categories of errors and potential vulnerabilities during compilation. Memory safety errors make up 70% of vulnerabilities corrected in Windows since 2006.
Weston, the Vice President of the OS Security at Microsoft, revealed that part of the Rust code has already been implemented in the Windows core. He mentioned that Windows 11 could also be loaded on Rust, although the code port is still disconnected and hidden behind the flag of functions. Microsoft began rewriting parts of Windows on Rust in 2020, starting with the API DirectWrite, which manages high-quality text rendering, contour fonts, full support for text, and the Unicode layout.
The interface of the main graphic device Windows (Win32 GDI) has already been transferred to Rust, and 36,000 lines of code have been transformed. In addition, 152,000 rows of Rust code and about 96,000 lines of C++ code have been used in the Dwritecore implementation, which significantly increased the performance of font operations by 5-15%. However, with millions of lines of code written in C, C++, C#, and Assembly, Windows 10 and 11 will never be fully rewritten on Rust.
Apart from Microsoft, the Linux kernel and Android firmware also plan to introduce Rust programming language to increase memory safety. Rust offers a solution to memory errors in Windows, which has been a significant issue since 2006. With Microsoft’s acceptance of Rust, this programming language’s potential is likely to be fully realized in the near future.