Should it be possible to build a Windows MAUI app on a Mac?

Question

I've got Visual Studio 2022 installed on my Mac, and can build for Android, iOS and Mac. However, building for Windows is failing with the error:

Error CS5001: Program does not contain a static 'Main' method suitable for an entry point (CS5001) (MAUIApp3)

I know I won't be able to run the Windows version on the Mac, but should I be able to build it on the Mac?

Answer 1

Hello,

should I be able to build it on the Mac?

No, MAUI application for windows platform is using Windows UI Library (WinUI) 3.

Currently, WinUI 3 applications cannot be built directly on macOS using Visual Studio for Mac. WinUI 3 is a user interface framework provided by Microsoft for building modern Windows applications.

WinUI 3 applications require Windows as the development environment because they rely on the Windows App SDK and the underlying Windows operating system components.

If you want to build MAUI application for windows platform, you will need to use a Windows machine with Visual Studio installed.

Best Regards,

Leon Lu

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Answer 2

You could install parallels and run the windows vs to build the windows app.