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Use the Windows App SDK in a Windows Forms (WinForms) app

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The Windows App SDK is the next evolution in the Windows app development platform. But this topic shows how you can use Windows App SDK APIs (and Windows Runtime APIs) in a Windows Forms (WinForms) app!

  • In many cases, you'll want to recreate your WinForms app in the form of a WinUI 3 app. Just one of the advantages of moving to WinUI 3 is to have access to the Fluent Design System (also see Design and code Windows apps). And WinUI 3 is part of the Windows App SDK—so, naturally, a WinUI 3 app can use the other Windows App SDK features and APIs, as well. This topic doesn't cover the process of migrating your WinForms app to WinUI 3.
  • But if you find that you're using features of WinForms that aren't yet available in WinUI 3, then you can still use Windows App SDK features (such as App Lifecycle, MRT Core, DWriteCore, and others) in your WinForms app. This topic shows you how.

And in case you don't already have an existing WinForms project—or you want to practice the process—this topic includes steps to create a WinForms project so that you can follow along and configure it to call Windows App SDK APIs.

Prerequisites

  1. Install tools for the Windows App SDK.
  2. This topic covers both unpackaged and packaged WinForms apps. If your WinForms app is unpackaged (which WinForms apps are by default), then ensure that all dependencies for unpackaged apps are installed (see Windows App SDK deployment guide for framework-dependent apps packaged with external location or unpackaged). A quick way to do that is to visit Latest downloads for the Windows App SDK, then download and unzip and run one of the stable release Runtime downloads.

Important

The version of the Runtime that you install needs to match the version of the Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK NuGet package that you'll install in a later step.

For more info about the terms unpackaged and packaged, see Advantages and disadvantages of packaging your app.

Create a WinForms project if you don't already have one

If you already have a WinForms project, then you can move on to the next section.

  1. In Visual Studio, create a new C# Windows Forms App project (which is a .NET project). Be careful that you choose the project template with the exact name Windows Forms App, and not the Windows Forms App (.NET Framework) one.
  2. Give the project a name, and accept any default options.

You now have a project that builds an unpackaged WinForms app.

Configure your WinForms project for Windows App SDK support

First we'll edit the project file.

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click your project, and choose Edit Project File.

  2. This step enables you to call Windows Runtime (WinRT) APIs (including Windows App SDK APIs). Inside the PropertyGroup element is the TargetFramework element, which is set to a value such as net6.0. Append to that target framework value a moniker (specifically, a Target Framework Moniker). For example, use the following if your app targets Windows 10, version 2004:

    <TargetFramework>net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0</TargetFramework>

  3. Also inside the PropertyGroup element, add a RuntimeIdentifiers element, like this:

    <RuntimeIdentifiers>win10-x86;win10-x64;win10-arm64</RuntimeIdentifiers>

  4. By default, a WinForms app is unpackaged (meaning that it isn't installed by using MSIX). An unpackaged app must initialize the Windows App SDK runtime before using any other feature of the Windows App SDK. You can do that automatically when your app starts via auto-initialization. You just set (also inside the PropertyGroup element) the WindowsPackageType project property appropriately, like this:

    <WindowsPackageType>None</WindowsPackageType>

    If you have advanced needs (such as custom error handling, or to load a specific version of the Windows App SDK), then instead of auto-initialization you can call the bootstrapper API explicitly—for more info, see Use the Windows App SDK runtime for apps packaged with external location or unpackaged.

  5. Save and close the project file.

Next, we'll install the Windows App SDK NuGet package in the project.

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the Dependencies node of your project, and choose Manage Nuget Packages....
  2. In the NuGet Package Manager window, select the Browse tab, and install the Latest stable Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK package.

Use some Windows App SDK features in your WinForms app

This section offers a very simple example of calling Windows App SDK APIs from a WinForms app. It uses the MRT Core feature (see Manage resources with MRT Core). If this example works for your WinForms project (and if you created a new one for this walkthrough, then it will), then you can follow these steps.

  1. Open Form1.cs (using the View Designer command), and drag a Button and a Label out of the Toolbox and onto the designer.

  2. Double-click button1 to generate an event handler.

  3. Now we'll add some code that uses the ResourceManager class in the Windows App SDK to load a string resource.

    1. Add a new Resources File (.resw) item to your project (leave it with the default name of Resources.resw).

    2. With the resources file open in the editor, create a new string resource with the following properties.

      • Name: Message
      • Value: Hello, resources!

    3. Save and close the resources file.

    4. Open Form1.cs (using the View Code command), and edit the event handler to look like this:

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Construct a resource manager using the resource index generated during build.
    var manager =
        new Microsoft.Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources.ResourceManager();

    // Look up a string in the resources file using the string's name.
    label1.Text = manager.MainResourceMap.GetValue("Resources/Message").ValueAsString;
}

  4. Build the project, and run the app. Click the button to see the string Hello, resources! displayed.

Tip

If at runtime you see a message box indicating that the application needs a particular version of the Windows App Runtime, and asks whether you want to install it now, then click Yes. That will take you to Latest downloads for the Windows App SDK. For more info, see the Prerequisites section above.

Also see Runtime architecture to learn more about the Framework package dependency that your app takes when it uses the Windows App SDK, and the additional components required to work in an unpackaged app.

Package and deploy your WinForms app with MSIX

Some Windows features and APIs (including the Windows App SDK notifications APIs) require your app to have package identity at runtime (in other words, your app needs to be packaged). For more info, see Features that require package identity.

  1. In Solution Explorer in Visual Studio, right-click the solution, and choose Add > New Project....
  2. In the Add a new project dialog box, search for packaging, choose the C# Windows Application Packaging Project project template, and click Next.
  3. Name the project, and click Create.
  4. We want to specify which applications in the solution are to be included in the package. So in the packaging project (not the WinForms project), right-click the Dependencies node, and choose Add Project Reference....
  5. In the list of projects in the solution, choose your WinForms project, and click OK.
  6. Expand the packaging project's Dependencies > Applications node, and confirm that your WinForms project is referenced and highlighted in bold. This means that it will be used as a starting point for the package.
  7. Right-click the packaging project, and choose Set As Startup Project.
  8. Right-click the WinForms project, and choose Edit Project File.
  9. Delete <WindowsPackageType>None</WindowsPackageType>, save, and close.
  10. In the Solution Platforms drop-down, pick x64 (instead of Any Cpu).
  11. Confirm that you can build and run.

Now that you've packaged your WinForms app, you can call APIs that require package identity. So open Form1.cs (using the View Code command), and edit the event handler to look like this:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var notification = new AppNotificationBuilder()
        .AddArgument("action", "viewConversation")
        .AddArgument("conversationId", "9813")
        .AddText("Andrew sent you a picture")
        .AddText("Check this out, The Enchantments in Washington!")
        .BuildNotification();

    AppNotificationManager.Default.Show(notification);
}

Build and run again. Click the button, and confirm that a toast notification is displayed. When called from a process that lacks package identity at runtime, the notifications APIs throw an exception.

Note

The steps in this section showed you how to create a packaged app. An alternative is to create a packaged app with external location. For a reminder of all these terms, see Advantages and disadvantages of packaging your app.