Application Architecture

The Windows Application Architecture provides a set of guidelines, patterns, and best practices for building robust, maintainable, and high‑performance desktop and universal Windows applications.

Layered Architecture Model

Windows apps are typically organized into distinct layers that separate concerns and improve testability.

Presentation Layer
 └─ UI (XAML, WinUI)
 └─ ViewModels (MVVM)

Business Logic Layer
 └─ Services
 └─ Domain Models

Data Access Layer
 └─ Repositories
 └─ Data Providers (SQLite, EF Core)

Model‑View‑ViewModel (MVVM)

MVVM is the recommended pattern for XAML‑based applications. It decouples the UI from the business logic and enables data binding.

Model: Represents the data and business rules.
View: Declares the UI in XAML.
ViewModel: Exposes data and commands to the View via IObservable and INotifyPropertyChanged.

Service‑Oriented Components

Encapsulate reusable functionality (e.g., logging, telemetry, networking) as services registered with the dependency injection (DI) container.

public interface ILoggingService {
    void Log(string message, LogLevel level = LogLevel.Information);
}
public class LoggingService : ILoggingService { … }

Asynchronous Programming

Use async/await with IAsyncOperation and Task to keep the UI responsive.

public async Task LoadDataAsync()
{
    var data = await _dataService.GetItemsAsync();
    Items = new ObservableCollection<Item>(data);
}

Sample Code

Explore the full sample repository on GitHub for practical implementations of these patterns.

Microsoft Docs