Window App SDK Ecosystem Update

[Guest Zahara Kondo]

On November 16th the Windows App SDK team released version 1.0! It’s the starting point for your ability to build and ship Windows desktop apps with Windows 10 and Windows 11. It includes the ability to use Windows App SDK with a .NET 5+ app, as well as WinUI 3 and WebView2 for modern UI development. Windows App SDK 1.0 is one of many important improvements you can use to create great Windows apps and we can't wait to keep moving forward with even more features!

[HEADING=2]What is the Windows App SDK?[/HEADING]

When building an app with Windows App SDK you have access to both modern Windows technologies and new features, while also having access to the power of Desktop Win32. These technologies are decoupled from the OS and ship through NuGet so they can be adopted incrementally across all 1 billion + Windows devices, without having to wait for users to update their OS. With WinAppSDK you are in control of upgrading to new Versions! When building an app with Windows App SDK, you’ll start by installing the developer tools. This provides WinUI 3 project and item templates and sets up your app to reference the Windows App SDK package and any needed dependencies. Then you can create an app with a modern Windows 11 experience using WinUI 3.

[HEADING=2]What’s supported in Windows App SDK 1.0?[/HEADING]

Lots of features are available both new and continuing from previous versions!

• WinUI 3
  
• Text Rendering (DWrite Core)
  
• Resource Management (MRT Core)
  
• App Lifecycle (App Instancing, Rich Activation, Power Management)
  
• Windowing
  
• C# Templates
  
• C++ Templates
  

You can find the full release note here. The team aims to continue putting out regular previews and we’re actively seeking your feedback on each of them.

[HEADING=2]Get started with Windows App SDK 1.0[/HEADING]

To start using Windows App SDK, see Get started with Windows App SDK to set up your development environment and learn more about the components included in this release. If you want to jump right in with building your first WinUI 3 desktop app, start with our tutorial!

[HEADING=2]A growing ecosystem[/HEADING]

We're excited that the following ecosystem technologies are already supporting Windows App SDK 1.0. These technologies provide unique features and controls to supplement WinUI 3, and you can read more about each of them by following the links below.

• DevExpress: DevExpress has released 20 new WinUI controls with Windows App SDK 1.0 support, including the Data Grid, Scheduler, Charts, Ribbon Toolbar, WinUI Reporting, and more. All 20 UI components are available free-of-charge to get started!
  
• GrapeCity: ComponentOne WinUI Edition includes a powerful datagrid with cell customization and high-performance virtualization, essential calendar and accordion layout controls, fluent styles, and support for desktop (Win32) applications.
  
• Infragistics: Ultimate UI for WinUI + Windows App SDK 1.0 bringing business critical, high performing, and feature rich line of business controls to your apps that target any platform that runs Windows (including Windows on ARM64). Preview available now!
  
• ArcGIS Runtime SDK for .NET (ESRI): Adds mapping, spatial analytics, and location intelligence capabilities to your apps on Android, iOS, and Windows. Support for WinUI 3 is now available with samples [github.com] to jumpstart your journey today!
  
• Uno Platform: Use WinUI 3 – Windows App SDK 1.0, XAML and C# to build pixel-perfect, single-codebase, native applications that can run on Web, Desktop and Mobile. It is free, open-source and available today.
  
• Syncfusion: A state-of-the-art WinUI toolkit with 25+ controls including DataGrid, Chart, Scheduler and File Formats libraries (Excel, PDF, Word and PowerPoint). Checkout the WinUI Controls page more details and demos.
  
• Telerik UI for WinUI: The market first and biggest (40+) UI components suite for crafting Win32 apps with WinUI 3, comes with feature-rich controls like Scheduler, Ribbon, DataGrid, Charts, Gauges, Barcodes and more. It also provides a bundle of document processing libraries to enable processing the most used document file formats.
  
• Windows Community Toolkit (Microsoft): The WCT currently supports Windows App SDK 1.0! It provides tons of new controls and capabilities for use in your WinUI app. You can find out more about using it with WinUI 3 here.
  

[HEADING=2]What’s next? [/HEADING]

In the near term, we plan to release Windows App SDK 1.1 Experimental in the next few weeks and Windows App SDK 1.1 GA in late Q2, with preview releases that will ship alongside these stable releases. Throughout the next calendar year, more technologies will be coming to WinAppSDK, such as multi-window support and push notifications. Staying in the loop You can stay up to date with the team on the Windows App SDK GitHub repo and the and through our monthly

where we often share roadmap updates and other exciting news. You can also connect with us on Twitter using #WindowsAppSDK and @WindowsUI. We look forward to seeing the beautiful apps you create with WinAppSDK 1.0 & WinUI 3! Sincerely, Windows App SDK team

 

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