Getting started with Windows Forms for .NET

This document describes the experience of using Windows Forms on .NET. The Developer Guide describes how to develop features and fixes for Windows Forms.

Installation

Choose one of these options:

.NET 7.0 SDK (recommended)
.NET 8.0 daily build (latest changes, could be less stable)

Creating new applications

You can create a new WinForms application with dotnet new command, using the following commands:

dotnet new winforms -o MyWinFormsApp
cd MyWinFormsApp
dotnet run

Designing Forms

You can try the Windows Forms Core Designer Visual Studio extension, see Windows Forms Designer documentation. As an alternative, you can use this workaround.

Samples

Check out the .NET Windows Forms samples for both basic and advanced scenarios. Additionally, there is a collection of Windows Forms sample applications on Microsoft Learn.

Porting existing applications

To port your existing Windows Forms application from .NET Framework to .NET 6 or .NET 7, refer to our porting guidelines.

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