I have a couple Windows desktop apps (animal husbandry and event management) that have been around for years and still doing quite well. But I think these succeed primarily because they have a nice specific vertical and are particularly well suited for desktops.<p>For me, a successful desktop application has the following traits:<p>-- A nice specific vertical that is deep and complex to process,<p>-- Complex entry screens with lots of necessary rules and data validation,<p>-- Lots of manual data manipulation during the events,<p>-- Substantial benefit from ability to take advantage of desktop level mouse and keyboard actions,<p>-- Some complex grid based screens that can be tailored by each user,<p>-- Fairly complex reporting after the events.<p>These requirements are still too much for browsers to handle well. The grid based screens are especially horrible in browsers. And browser apps are still pretty horrible for complex data entry screens that want to be customized by the user.<p>That said, I&#x27;m porting the first to a mixed mode where the engine will be internet based but the primary interface will still be the &quot;normal&quot; download and install desktop model. This is to allow some portions to be used in a browser, but the main application still keep the full desktop power.<p>FWIW: my original apps were Delphi based, but the language long ago stagnated and had become tedious (comparatively). Since I&#x27;d switched to .NET for contract work, I started my rewrite in C#. But but I ended up hating the server deployment crap with .NET and also of got really tired the direction Microsoft is going in general. I&#x27;ve now switched C# for the desktop side and Google&#x27;s Go language for the web&#x2F;model portion. I picked Go primarily for the trivial single executable deployment. While I don&#x27;t really get much enjoyment out of coding in Go, it is eminently practical for this type of work. (Note for Gophers: I don&#x27;t think Go is bad either ... just sort of there. I do use it quite a bit these day and do get the &quot;fun vs practical&quot; trade-offs the Go team made.)<p>But the future may be bleak with Microsoft moving to an app store. Why the F do I want Microsoft sitting between me and my customers. It adds no benefit to me and provides no benefit to my customers for a portable or unzip and go desktop application. Plus they, like Apple and Google, want to become effectively the worlds most expensive payment processors.