Migrate my pure UWP app to WINUI or not?

Gianfranco Percopo 16 Reputation points
2021-10-12T14:21:06.527+00:00

Hi I'm very confused about what to do with my app. I started in the days of silverlight for windows 7 and then moved on to 8, 8.1 and finally landed on UWP. I love programming in UWP but with the advent of WINUI I am worried about my app. What should I do? Should I migrate my app to WINUI or not? If so, is there a tutorial? I don't know where to turn and the documentation is really painful. Microsoft continues to shut down one technology in favor of a new one. Absurd to develop in this way.

Windows App SDK
Windows App SDK
A set of Microsoft open-source libraries, frameworks, components, and tools to be used in apps to access Windows platform functionality on many versions of Windows. Previously known as Project Reunion.
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  1. PatrickTalon38 46 Reputation points
    2021-12-17T02:28:46.367+00:00

    Benefits of Staying with UWP

    • UWP has a comprehensive and very broad set of controls/elements with which to build a UI. Windows App SDK WinUI 3 only has much fewer controls.
    • UWP presents the XAML code editor for Pages to show the XAML Designer, which gives rapid feedback to the developer as to how the XAML layout and interface is developing visually. WinUI 3 app project types created with Visual Studio 2022 do not ever show such a XAML Designer, leaving the UI designer in the blind while coding XAML.
    • My conclusion: stay with UWP until Windows App SDK greatly matures, expands, and refines.

      Benefits of Migrating to WinUI

    • From what I've read in Microsoft Learn, migrating from UWP to WinUI/Windows App SDK can involve a lot of redesigning code and standards. However, UWP's restrictions on file system access, registry access, and much more are no longer impossible hindrances to app developers, if using WinUI 3 instead of UWP.
    • I was considering proceeding at migrating an app in fledgling but lengthy development from UWP to WinUI 3, and I can say that the documentation is thorough enough and detailed enough, and written just for migrators, that there are docs well able to quickly address what to do when unsure.

    Here is a list of links to the migration issues documentation:

    UWP to WinUI Migration

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/windows-app-sdk/set-up-your-development-environment
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/windows-app-sdk/single-project-msixx
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/windows-app-sdk/update-existing-projects-to-the-latest-release
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/windows-app-sdk/migrate-to-windows-app-sdk/overall-migration-strategy
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/windows-app-sdk/migrate-to-windows-app-sdk/feature-mapping-table

    This above set of five links should allow learning the organization and layout of UWP-WinUI issues, by covering the most essential parts of moving to WinUI, for a UWP developer.

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  2. Castorix31 81,446 Reputation points
    2021-10-12T14:54:37.533+00:00

    Should I migrate my app to WINUI or not? If so, is there a tutorial?

    There is Migrating a UWP App To WinUI3
    where they say to use try-convert : Converting To WinUI3 Using Try-Convert
    but I never tested...

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