How to target .NET 6.0 with Visual Studio 2019?

john zyd 421

Hello:
I know .NET 6.0 is released, but I don’t know how to create a WinForm App targeting .NET 6.0 with Visual Studio 2019 (Version 16.11.5) on Windows 10 (Version 21H1)
I can download the following packages:
.NET 6.0 SDK (v6.0.100) - Windows x64 Installer!
.NET 6.0 Desktop Runtime (v6.0.0) - Windows x64 Installer!
But when I create a WinForm App project, there is no place to target .NET 6.0.
Please give detailed instructions.
I know I can use Visual Studio 2022 can target .NET 6.0, but currently we can’t use Visual Studio 2022 yet, have to wait at least one year.
Thanks,

Accepted answer

Karen Payne MVP 35,031 Reputation points

2021-11-09T09:44:58.98+00:00
First off, for proof the following works, the following Visual Studio Solution was created in VS2019, runs fine. As a side note I have samples for DateOnly and TimeOnly struct and a few other goodies.

Under Options, Environment, Preview Features set Use previews of the .NET SDK to true, restart Visual Studio.

Restart, in a Visual Studio solution create a new Windows Form app.

To validate double click the project file in Solution Explorer and you should see

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk"> <PropertyGroup> <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType> <TargetFramework>net6.0-windows</TargetFramework> <Nullable>enable</Nullable> <UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms> </PropertyGroup> </Project>

Or create via PowerShell at the root folder of a Visual Studio solution

dotnet new winforms --name WinApp1 --output WinApp1 dotnet sln add .\WinApp1\WinApp1.csproj
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6 people found this answer helpful.
john zyd 421 Reputation points

2021-11-09T10:00:29.587+00:00

Hello:
I tried to follow your advice from VS 2019, see the pictures.
But I don't know if the settings are OK or not.
I have concerns that the project is targetting .NET 6.0 or not, how to know this?

Karen Payne MVP 35,031 Reputation points

2021-11-09T11:57:56.307+00:00

As indicated before, double click on the project file and you can see the Framework version. You will not see the Framework version under project properties.

cleric145-6909 11 Reputation points

2021-11-09T12:36:20.123+00:00

Don't do this; bad advice
Preview is not final release and your code won't work in final version of .net 6

John Carew 1 Reputation point

2021-12-02T07:33:24.98+00:00

This is not bad advice... The context of preview here is not the framework, but a feature of Visual Studio. You will be compiling against .Net 6.0 SDK full release, not a preview release.

By selecting the Visual Studio option, and installed .Net 6.0 SDK, you can use .Net 6.0 in Visual Studio 2019.

Alberto Monteiro 1 Reputation point

2021-12-24T03:42:34.243+00:00

I was able to reproduce, but this way you cant use file scoped namespaces feature from C# 10 sadly, I`ve tried some others and no problem.

Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-03-29T04:41:32.61+00:00

Just add <LangVersion>preview</LangVersion> to your project file and you'll be able to use C# 10 fetaures with Visual Studio 2019.

Nicolas 1 Reputation point

2022-09-08T21:09:22.047+00:00

Does this still work? I cannot reproduce this behavior using VS 2019 16.11.18. I get :

Error NETSDK1045 The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET 6.0. Either target .NET 5.0 or lower, or use a version of the .NET SDK that supports .NET 6.0.

Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-09-09T04:42:07.603+00:00

Looks like they finally transformed Error NETSDK1045 message from warning to an critical error. That workaround was working for sure at least in May 2022. Full error message is

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.411\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.TargetFrameworkInference.targets(141,5): error NETSDK1045: The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET 6.0. Either target .NET 5.0 or lower, or use a version of the .NET SDK that supports .NET 6.0.

So I suppose they applied that change directly in .NET 5.0 SDK. If you wish you may try SDK 5.0.408 from May 10, 2022 which is included in Visual Studio 16.11.14 - the workaround should still work in it. If not - try Visual Studio 16.11.13.

DaveInCaz 1 Reputation point

2022-09-09T12:33:48.757+00:00

@Alexey Leonovich FWIW I happen to have VS2019 16.11.12 installed and I have the same hard error (not warning) about NETSDK1045. And dotnet --list-sdks reports that I have

5.0.407 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 6.0.301 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 6.0.400 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-09-12T13:51:14.737+00:00

I've found my old test PC with Visual Studio 2019 Pro 16.11.5 and now it also produces hard error (not warning). This PC has .NET 5.0 SDK 5.0.402 and recently I've updated .NET 6 SDK to version 6.0.300 (runtime version is 6.0.5). So maybe described workaround depends on .NET 6 SDK version - you may try some very first versions. Or may be installing one of the latest .NET 6 SDK intself transforms warning to a hard error - cannot test it because I don't have clean PC nearby :(

Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-09-26T06:49:07.24+00:00

@DaveInCaz I’ve just created a new VM with Windows 10 21H2 Pro x64, installed Visual Studio 2019 16.11.6 Pro (November 9, 2021) and .NET SDK 6.0.100 REL (November 8, 2021). Then I’ve created new Windows Forms App targeting .NET 5.0 and builded it. After that changed <TargetFramework> tag in .csproj file from net5.0-windows to net6.0-windows (also added <LangVersion> preview </LangVersion> line to be able to use C# 9.0 features) and Rebuilded my solution. NETSDK1182 is a warning (not hard error) and allows me to compile, run and debug my application.
I will try to figure out if the NETSDK1182 warning is converted to a hard error by a Visual Studio 2019 version update or a .NET 6 SDK version update…

T.I Ali 0 Reputation points

2023-03-22T16:23:15.7133333+00:00

This method did not work with the non-preview release version of dotnet-sdk-6.0.310-win-x64.exe with VS 2019.

Even with the Preview options selected in Visual Studio, while creating a new Project type .NET 6.0 was unavailable as a Target Framework.
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9 additional answers

Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-09-26T08:45:55.363+00:00
Visual Studio 2019 is officially unsupported for .NET 6.0 development but there is a workaround that is still working for today (October 2022):

Install latest Visual Studio 2019 (I've tested on 16.11.20, 11 October 2022).

Intall latest .NET SDK from 6.0.1xx SDK branch (I've tested on 6.0.110, for 6.0.10 runtime, 11 October 2022). It is vital to use this SDK branch because NETSDK1182 warning was transformed into a hard error in 6.0.3xx SDK branch. 6.0.2xx SDK branch is not getting updates anymore.

Create new application of type you need targeting .NET 5.0. Compile it.

Open .csproj file and change <TargetFramework>net50</TargetFramework> to <TargetFramework>net60</TargetFramework> (in some cases it can be net5.0-windows - so change it to net6.0-windows). Optionally add <LangVersion>preview</LangVersion> to be able to use C#9.0 syntax.

Now you can compile, run and debug (don't pay attention to NETSDK1182 warning) some types of .NET 6.0 applications: class library, console, WinForms and WPF. ASP .NET Core applications doesn't compile for some reason, mybe there is some workaround but I don't have info about it.

Detailed information about .NET SDK version:
So finally looks like I've managed to find it out:
NETSDK1182 warning was transformed into a hard error in .NET SDK 6.0.300 (for .NET 6.0.5 runtime, Visual Studio 17.2). So don't use 6.0.3xx SDK branch (looks like same is correct for 6.0.4xx, etc).
6.0.2xx SDK branch is out of support (since Visual Studio 17.1 is out of support), but 6.0.1xx SDK branch is still supported (since Visual Studio 17.0 is supported till 11 April 2023).
Latest one is .NET SDK 6.0.110 (for latest .NET 6.0.10 runtime) and with it Visual Studio 2019 can compile, run and debug some types of .NET 6.0 applications: class library, console, WinForms and WPF. ASP .NET Core applications doesn't compile but not because of NETSDK1182. Tested with latest Visual Studio 2019 16.11.20.
Good luck.
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3 people found this answer helpful.
Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-10-15T16:33:11.123+00:00

@DaveInCaz , @Nicolas , @john zyd upvote this answer if this workaround is working for you, please.

Alexey Leonovich 96 Reputation points

2022-10-15T16:40:14.853+00:00

@john zyd change accepted answer to this one, please (since current accepted answer is applicable only to preview versions of .NET 6.0 but my workaround is still working with latest version).
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Castorix31 81,461 Reputation points

2021-11-09T09:29:42.81+00:00

From the doc, it is not supported : Download .NET 6.0 :

Visual Studio support
Visual Studio 2022 (v17.0)
Visual Studio 2019 for Mac (v8.10)

If I set net6.0-windows in <TargetFramework> in .csproj, it does not work on my 2019 version :
I get
Error NETSDK1045 The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET 6.0. Either target .NET 5.0 or lower, or use a version of the .NET SDK that supports .NET 6.0.

and in the doc for .NET 6.0 SDK :
This release is only compatible with Visual Studio 2022 (v17.0)
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2 people found this answer helpful.
john zyd 421 Reputation points

2021-11-09T09:40:58.577+00:00

It is interesting to know that .NET 6.0 works for
Visual Studio 2019 for Mac (v8.10).
What is the difference for Visual Studio 2019 for Windows and for Mac?

Castorix31 81,461 Reputation points

2021-11-09T10:02:12.917+00:00

Otherwise, you can see the last answer in this thread Make .NET 6 (final version) development available in Visual Studio 2019

Bruce (SqlWork.com) 55,041 Reputation points

2021-11-11T01:36:44.863+00:00

They are really different code bases.

As visual studio 2022 for the Mac is still in preview, so 2019 was updated for .net 6.

For vs 2022, large portions of the code was converted to .net. Much of this code will be shared between vs 2022 windows and Mac. An important piece of code was the new debugger and hot load.

Most likely vs2019 will not support the new debugger.
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Jaliya Udagedara 2,731 Reputation points MVP

2021-11-10T21:08:04.553+00:00
@Castorix31 is correct. .NET 6 only supports following Visual Studio versions,

Visual Studio 2022 (v17.0)

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac (v8.10)

More Information:
Announcing .NET 6 — The Fastest .NET Yet
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/6.0
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Karen Payne MVP 35,031 Reputation points

2021-11-10T21:34:20.54+00:00

@Jaliya Udagedara yes those both provide support while I've had to only tweak a few things to get net6 in VS2019, nothing elaborate simple EF Core functionality etc.
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Jeroen van Langen 1 Reputation point

2022-08-01T14:05:27.03+00:00

As I read here. Whole visual studio 2019 with dotnet 5 is obsolete. Can I have a part of my money back?
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John Carew 1 Reputation point

2022-08-02T18:33:25.323+00:00

Are you having trouble reading? Where did you see in these comments that anyone said VS 2019 with .Net 5 is obsolete?? These comments even point out how to use .Net 6 in VS 2019.

Jeroen van Langen 1 Reputation point

2022-08-03T08:43:08.363+00:00

I've tried it, didn't work.

John Carew 1 Reputation point

2022-08-03T15:49:23.427+00:00

Then you did something incorrect. We have this setup and being used literally right now in VS 2019 using .Net 6 SDK.
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