Tutorial: Prepare your external tenant to sign in user in .NET WPF application

This tutorial series demonstrates how to build a .NET Windows Presentation Form (WPF) desktop application and prepare it for authentication using the Microsoft Entra admin center. You'll register the app in the Microsoft Entra admin center, create a .NET WPF desktop app, add sign-in and sign-out components and run the application.

In this tutorial;

  • Register a WPF desktop application in the Microsoft Entra admin center
  • Create a sign-in and sign-out user flow in customers tenant
  • Associate your WPF desktop app with the user flow

Prerequisites

  • An external tenant. To create one, choose from the following methods:
  • This Azure account must have permissions to manage applications. Any of the following Microsoft Entra roles include the required permissions:
    • Application Administrator
    • Application Developer
    • Cloud Application Administrator.

Register the desktop app

To enable your application to sign in users with Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Entra External ID must be made aware of the application you create. The app registration establishes a trust relationship between the app and Microsoft Entra. When you register an application, External ID generates a unique identifier known as an Application (client) ID, a value used to identify your app when creating authentication requests.

The following steps show you how to register your app in the Microsoft Entra admin center:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least an Application Developer.

  2. If you have access to multiple tenants, use the Settings icon in the top menu to switch to your external tenant from the Directories + subscriptions menu.

  3. Browse to Identity >Applications > App registrations.

  4. Select + New registration.

  5. In the Register an application page that appears;

    1. Enter a meaningful application Name that is displayed to users of the app, for example ciam-client-app.
    2. Under Supported account types, select Accounts in this organizational directory only.
  6. Select Register.

  7. The application's Overview pane displays upon successful registration. Record the Application (client) ID to be used in your application source code.

Specify your app platform

To specify your app type to your app registration, follow these steps:

  1. Under Manage, select Authentication.
  2. On the Platform configurations page, select Add a platform, and then select Mobile and desktop applications option.
  3. In the input field under Custom redirect URI, manually enter https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient, then select Configure. If you select this URI on the select box, you may get a redirect URI error.
  1. From the App registrations page, select the application that you created (such as ciam-client-app) to open its Overview page.

  2. Under Manage, select API permissions. From the Configured permissions list, your application has been assigned the User.Read permission. However, since the tenant is an external tenant, the consumer users themselves can't consent to this permission. You as the admin must consent to this permission on behalf of all the users in the tenant:

    1. Select Grant admin consent for <your tenant name>, then select Yes.
    2. Select Refresh, then verify that Granted for <your tenant name> appears under Status for both scopes.

Create a user flow

Follow these steps to create a user flow a customer can use to sign in or sign up for an application.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least an External ID User Flow Administrator.

  2. If you have access to multiple tenants, use the Settings icon in the top menu to switch to your external tenant from the Directories + subscriptions menu.

  3. Browse to Identity > External Identities > User flows.

  4. Select + New user flow.

  5. On the Create page:

    1. Enter a Name for the user flow, such as SignInSignUpSample.

    2. In the Identity providers list, select Email Accounts. This identity provider allows users to sign-in or sign-up using their email address.

      Note

      Additional identity providers will be listed here only after you set up federation with them. For example, if you set up federation with Google or Facebook, you'll be able to select those additional identity providers here.

    3. Under Email accounts, you can select one of the two options. For this tutorial, select Email with password.

      • Email with password: Allows new users to sign up and sign in using an email address as the sign-in name and a password as their first factor credential.
      • Email one-time-passcode: Allows new users to sign up and sign in using an email address as the sign-in name and email one-time passcode as their first factor credential. Email one-time passcode must be enabled at the tenant level (All Identity Providers > Email One-time-passcode) for this option to be available at the user flow level.
    4. Under User attributes, choose the attributes you want to collect from the user upon sign-up. By selecting Show more, you can choose attributes and claims for Country/Region, Display Name, and Postal Code. Select OK. (Users are only prompted for attributes when they sign up for the first time.)

  6. Select Create. The new user flow appears in the User flows list. If necessary, refresh the page.

To enable self-service password reset, use the steps in Enable self-service password reset article.

Associate the WPF application with the user flow

For the customer users to see the sign-up or sign-in experience when they use your app, you need to associate your app with a user flow. Although many applications can be associated with your user flow, a single application can only be associated with one user flow.

  1. On the sidebar menu, select Identity.

  2. Select External Identities, then User flows.

  3. In the User flows page, select the User flow name you created earlier, for example, SignInSignUpSample.

  4. Under Use, select Applications.

  5. Select Add application.

  6. Select the application from the list such as ciam-client-app or use the search box to find the application, and then select it.

  7. Choose Select.

Once you associate your app with a user flow, you can test your user flow by simulating a user’s sign-up or sign-in experience with your application from within the Microsoft Entra admin center. To do so, use the steps in Test your sign-up and sign-in user flow.

Record your registration details

The next step after this tutorial is to build a WPF desktop app that authenticates users. Ensure you have the following details:

  • The Application (client) ID of the WPF desktop app that you registered.
  • The Directory (tenant) subdomain where you registered your WPF desktop app.

Next step