MSDN Documentation

.NET Desktop Applications

Develop rich, modern, and high-performance desktop applications for Windows using the .NET ecosystem. Microsoft provides powerful frameworks and tools to build everything from simple productivity tools to complex enterprise solutions.

Key Technologies for Desktop Development

The .NET platform offers several robust frameworks for building desktop applications:

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

WPF is a powerful UI framework for building Windows desktop applications with a rich set of features and a declarative approach using XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language). It supports advanced graphics, animations, data binding, styles, and templates, allowing for highly customizable and visually appealing user interfaces.

Key Features:

• Declarative UI design with XAML.
• Hardware-accelerated graphics.
• Rich data binding capabilities.
• Resolution independence.
• Extensible control model.

Learn more about WPF.

Windows Forms (WinForms)

Windows Forms is a mature and widely-used framework for building traditional Windows desktop applications. It provides a set of controls that wrap the native Windows user interface elements, making it easy to create standard Windows applications with a drag-and-drop design experience in Visual Studio.

Key Features:

• Rapid application development.
• Event-driven programming model.
• Large set of built-in controls.
• Integration with the Windows operating system.

Discover Windows Forms.

Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

UWP allows you to build applications that can run across all Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices, from PCs and tablets to Xbox and HoloLens. It emphasizes modern UI design principles, touch interaction, and a consistent experience across devices.

Key Features:

• Single codebase for multiple Windows devices.
• Modern UI/UX design principles.
• Access to device capabilities and sensors.
• Sandboxed environment for security.

Explore UWP Development.

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI)

.NET MAUI is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, enabling developers to build native cross-platform applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android from a single shared C# codebase.

Key Features:

• Single project structure for cross-platform development.
• Native UI controls across platforms.
• Modern C# and XAML for development.
• Access to native APIs.

Get started with .NET MAUI.

Getting Started with Desktop Development

To begin developing .NET desktop applications, you'll need:

1. Visual Studio: The integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft, providing tools for designing, coding, debugging, and deploying your applications. Install the "Desktop development with .NET" workload.
2. .NET SDK: Includes the .NET runtime, libraries, and tools needed to build and run .NET applications.

Example: A Simple WPF Application

Here's a snippet demonstrating a basic WPF window:

<Window x:Class="MyWpfApp.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="My First WPF App" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <TextBlock Text="Hello, .NET Desktop!"
                   HorizontalAlignment="Center"
                   VerticalAlignment="Center"
                   FontSize="24" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

And the corresponding C# code-behind:

using System.Windows;

namespace MyWpfApp
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
    }
}