Stable channel release notes for the Windows App SDK

The stable channel provides releases of the Windows App SDK that are supported for use by apps in production environments. Apps that use the stable release of the Windows App SDK can also be published to the Microsoft Store.

The following releases of the stable channel are currently available:

• Version 1.0
• Version 0.8
• Version 0.5

If you'd like to upgrade an existing app from an older version of the Windows App SDK to a newer version, see Update existing projects to the latest release of the Windows App SDK.

Version 1.0

Version 1.0 is the latest release of the stable channel for the Windows App SDK. 1.0 supports all stable channel features.

Downloads for 1.0 Stable

From the table below you can download the Visual Studio extensions (VSIX) and the .exe installer for the 1.0 Stable release. If you haven't done so already, Install developer tools.

The following sections describe new and updated features, limitations, and known issues for 1.0 Stable.

WinUI 3

WinUI 3 is the native user experience (UX) framework for Windows App SDK. In this release we've added multiple new features from Windows App SDK 0.8 and stabilized issues from 1.0 Preview releases.

New features and updates:

• We've added new controls (PipsPager, Expander, BreadcrumbBar) and updated existing controls to reflect the latest Windows styles from WinUI 2.6.
• Single-project MSIX packaging is supported in WinUI by creating a new application using the “Blank App, Packaged…” template.
• We now support deploying WinUI 3 apps without MSIX-packaging on Windows versions 1809 and above. Please view Create a WinUI 3 unpackaged desktop app for additional information.
• WinUI 3 projects can now set their target version down to Windows 10, version 1809. Previously, they could only be set as low as version 1903.
• In-app toolbar, Hot Reload, & Live Visual Tree for WinUI packaged apps are supported in Visual Studio 2022 Preview 5 and GA.

Important limitations:

• Known issues for both packaged and unpackaged WinUI applications:

  • Run-time error in C++ apps that reference a C++ Windows Runtime Component: To resolve, add the below target to the end of the Windows Runtime Component's .vcxproj:

    <Target Name="GetPriIndexName">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <!-- Winmd library targets use the default root namespace of the project for the App package name -->
        <PriIndexName Condition="'$(RootNamespace)' != ''">$(RootNamespace)</PriIndexName>
        <!-- If RootNamespace is empty fall back to TargetName -->
        <PriIndexName Condition="$(PriIndexName) == ''">$(TargetName)</PriIndexName>
    </PropertyGroup>
    </Target>
    

• Known issues for WinUI applications with Single-project MSIX (Blank App, Packaged template):

  • Missing Package & Publish menu item until you restart Visual Studio: When creating a new app with Single-project MSIX in both Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022 using the Blank App, Packaged (WinUI 3 in Desktop) project template, the command to publish the project doesn't appear in the menu until you close and re-open Visual Studio.
  • A C# app with Single-project MSIX will not compile without the "C++ (v14x) Universal Windows Platform Tools" optional component installed. View Install developer tools for additional information.
  • Potential run-time error in an app with Single-project MSIX that consumes types defined in a referenced Windows Runtime Component: To resolve, manually add activatable class entries to the appxmanifest.xml.
    • The expected error in C# applications is “COMException: Class not registered (0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)).
    • The expected error in C++/WinRT applications is “winrt::hresult_class_not_registered”.

• Known issues for WinUI applications without MSIX-packaging (unpackaged apps):

  • Some APIs require package identity and are not supported in unpackaged apps, such as:
    • ApplicationData
    • StorageFile.GetFileFromApplicationUriAsync
    • StorageFile.CreateStreamedFileFromUriAsync
    • ApiInformation (not supported on Windows 10)
    • Package.Current
    • Any API in the Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources namespace
    • Any API in the Microsoft.Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources namespace

• Known issues for packaging and deploying WinUI applications:

  • The Package command is not supported in WinUI apps with Single-project MSIX (Blank App, Packaged template). Instead, use the Package & Publish command to create an MSIX package.
  • To create a NuGet package from a C# Class Library with the Pack command, ensure the active Configuration is Release.
  • The Pack command is not supported in C++ Windows Runtime Components to create a NuGet package.

For more info, or to get started developing with WinUI, see:

• Windows UI 3 Library (WinUI)
• Get started developing apps with WinUI 3

Windowing

The Windows App SDK provides an AppWindow class that evolves the previous easy-to-use Windows.UI.WindowManagement.AppWindow preview class and makes it available to all Windows apps, including Win32, WPF, and WinForms.

New Features

• AppWindow is a high-level windowing API that allows for easy-to-use windowing scenarios that integrates well with the Windows user experience and with other apps. Represents a high-level abstraction of a system-managed container of the content of an app. This is the container in which your content is hosted, and represents the entity that users interact with when they resize and move your app on screen. For developers familiar with Win32, the AppWindow can be seen as a high-level abstraction of the HWND.
• DisplayArea represents a high-level abstraction of a HMONITOR, follows the same principles as AppWindow.
• DisplayAreaWatcher allows a developer to observe changes in the display topology and enumerate DisplayAreas currently defined in the system.

For more info, see Manage app windows.

Input

These are the input APIs that support WinUI and provide a lower level API surface for developers to achieve more advanced input interactions.

New Features

• Pointer APIs: PointerPoint, PointerPointProperties, and PointerEventArgs to support retrieving pointer event information with XAML input APIs.
• InputPointerSource API: Represents an object that is registered to report pointer input, and provides pointer cursor and input event handling for XAML's SwapChainPanel API.
• Cursor API: Allows developers to change the cursor bitmap.
• GestureRecognizer API: Allows developers to recognize certain gestures such as drag, hold, and click when given pointer information.

Important limitations

• All PointerPoint static factory functions have been removed: GetCurrentPoint, GetCurrentPointTransformed, GetIntermediatePoints, and GetIntermediatePointsTransformed.
• The Windows App SDK doesn't support retrieving PointerPoint objects with pointer IDs. Instead, you can use the PointerPoint member function GetTransformedPoint to retrieve a transformed version of an existing PointerPoint object. For intermediate points, you can use the PointerEventArgs member functions GetIntermediatePoints and GetTransformedIntermediatePoints.
• Direct use of the platform SDK API Windows.UI.Core.CoreDragOperation will not work with WinUI applications.
• PointerPoint properties RawPosition and ContactRectRaw were removed because they referred to non-predicted values, which were the same as the normal values in the OS. Use Position and ContactRect instead. Pointer prediction is now handled with the Microsoft.UI.Input.PointerPredictor API object.

App Lifecycle

Most of the App Lifecycle features already exist in the UWP platform, and have been brought into the Windows App SDK for use by desktop app types, especially unpackaged Console apps, Win32 apps, Windows Forms apps, and WPF apps. The Windows App SDK implementation of these features cannot be used in UWP apps, since there are equivalent features in the UWP platform itself.

Non-UWP apps can also be packaged into MSIX packages. While these apps can use some of the Windows App SDK App Lifecycle features, they must use the manifest approach where this is available. For example, they cannot use the Windows App SDK RegisterForXXXActivation APIs and must instead register for rich activation via the manifest.

All the constraints for packaged apps also apply to WinUI apps, which are packaged, and there are additional considerations as described below.

Important considerations:

• Rich activation: GetActivatedEventArgs

  • Unpackaged apps: Fully usable.
  • Packaged apps: Usable, but these apps can also use the platform GetActivatedEventArgs. Note that the platform defines Windows.ApplicationModel.AppInstance whereas the Windows App SDK defines Microsoft.Windows.AppLifecycle.AppInstance. And while UWP apps can use the ActivatedEventArgs classes, such as FileActivatedEventArgs and LaunchActivatedEventArgs, apps that use the Windows App SDK AppLifecycle feature must use the interfaces not the classes (e.g, IFileActivatedEventArgs, ILaunchActivatedEventArgs, and so on).
  • WinUi apps: WinUI's App.OnLaunched is given a Microsoft.UI.Xaml.LaunchActivatedEventArgs, whereas the platform GetActivatedEventArgs returns a Windows.ApplicationModel.IActivatedEventArgs, and the WindowsAppSDK GetActivatedEventArgs returns a Microsoft.Windows.AppLifecycle.AppActivationArguments object which can represent a platform LaunchActivatedEventArgs.
  • For more info, see Rich activation.

• Register/Unregister for rich activation

  • Unpackaged apps: Fully usable.
  • Packaged apps: Not usable use the app's MSIX manifest instead.
  • For more info, see Rich activation.

• Single/Multi-instancing

  • Unpackaged apps: Fully usable.
  • Packaged apps: Fully usable.
  • WinUI apps: If an app wants to detect other instances and redirect an activation, it must do so as early as possible, and before initializing any windows, etc. To enable this, the app must define DISABLE_XAML_GENERATED_MAIN, and write a custom Main (C#) or WinMain (C++) where it can do the detection and redirection.
  • RedirectActivationToAsync is an async call, and you should not wait on an async call if your app is running in an STA. For Windows Forms and C# WinUI apps, you can declare Main to be async, if necessary. For C++ WinUI and C# WPF apps, you cannot declare Main to be async, so instead you need to move the redirect call to another thread to ensure you don't block the STA.
  • For more info, see App instancing.

• Power/State notifications

  • Unpackaged apps: Fully usable.
  • Packaged apps: Fully usable.
  • For more info, see Power management.

Known issue:

• File Type associations incorrectly encode %1 to be %251 when setting the Verb handler's command line template, which crashes unpackaged Win32 apps. You can manually edit the Registry value to be %1 instead as a partial workaround. If the target file path has a space in it, then it will still fail and there is no workaround for that scenario.
• These Single/Multi-instancing bugs will be fixed in an upcoming servicing patch:
  • AppInstance redirection doesn't work when compiled for x86
  • Registering a key, unregistering it, and re-registering it causes the app to crash

DWriteCore

DWriteCore is the Windows App SDK implementation of DirectWrite, which is the DirectX API for high-quality text rendering, resolution-independent outline fonts, and full Unicode text and layout support. DWriteCore is a form of DirectWrite that runs on versions of Windows down to Windows 10, version 1809 (10.0; Build 17763), and opens the door for you to use it cross-platform.

Features DWriteCore contains all of the features of DirectWrite, with a few exceptions.

Important limitations

• DWriteCore does not contain the following DirectWrite features:
  • Per-session fonts
  • End-user defined character (EUDC) fonts
  • Font-streaming APIs
• Low-level rendering API support is partial.
• DWriteCore doesn't interoperate with Direct2D, but you can use IDWriteGlyphRunAnalysis and IDWriteBitmapRenderTarget.

For more information, see DWriteCore overview.

MRT Core

MRT Core is a streamlined version of the modern Windows Resource Management System that is distributed as part of the Windows App SDK.

Important limitations

• In .NET projects, resource files copy-pasted into the project folder aren't indexed on F5 if the app was already built. As a workaround, rebuild the app. See issue 1503 for more info.
• In .NET projects, when a resource file is added to the project using the Visual Studio UI, the files may not be indexed by default. See issue 1786 for more info. To work around this issue, please remove the entries below in the CSPROJ file:

  <ItemGroup>
      <Content Remove="<image file name>" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
      <PRIResource Remove="<resw file name>" />
  </ItemGroup>
  

• For unpackaged C++ WinUI apps, the resource URI is not built correctly. To work around this issue, add the following in the vcxproj:

  <!-- Add the following after <Import Project="$(VCTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Cpp.props" /> -->
  
  <PropertyGroup>
      <AppxPriInitialPath></AppxPriInitialPath>   
  </PropertyGroup>
  

For more information, see Manage resources with MRT Core.

Deployment

New Features and updates

• You can auto-initialize the Windows App SDK through the WindowsPackageType project property to load the Windows App SDK runtime and call the Windows App SDK APIs. See Create a WinUI 3 app for instructions.
• Unpackaged apps can deploy Windows App SDK by integrating in the standalone Windows App SDK .exe installer into your existing MSI or setup program. For more info, see Windows App SDK deployment guide for unpackaged apps.
• Unpackaged .NET apps can also use .NET wrapper for the bootstrapper API to dynamically take a dependency on the Windows App SDK framework package at run time. For more info about the .NET wrapper, see .NET wrapper library.
• Packaged apps can use the deployment API to verify and ensure that all required packages are installed on the machine. For more info about how the deployment API works, see the deployment guide for packaged apps.

Important limitations

• The .NET wrapper for the bootstrapper API is only intended for use by unpackaged .NET applications to simplify access to the Windows App SDK.
• Only MSIX packaged apps that are full trust or have the packageManagement restricted capability have the permission to use the deployment API to install the main and singleton package dependencies. Support for partial-trust packaged apps will be coming in later releases.
• When F5 testing an x86 app which uses the DeploymentManager.Initialize method on an x64 system, ensure that the x64 framework is first installed by running the WindowsAppRuntimeInstall.exe. Otherwise, you will encounter a NOT_FOUND error due to Visual Studio not deploying the x64 framework, which normally occurs through Store deployment or sideloading.

Other limitations and known issues

• No support for Any CPU build configuration: When adding the Windows App SDK to an existing .NET application or component that supports Any CPU, you must specify the desired architecture: x86, x64 or arm64.

• Upgrading from .NET 5 to .NET 6: When upgrading in the Visual Studio UI, you may run into build errors. As a workaround, manually update your project file's TargetFrameworkPackage to the below:

      <TargetFramework>net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0</TargetFramework> 
  

• C# Single-project MSIX app doesn't compile if C++ UWP Tools aren't installed. If you have a C# Single-project MSIX project, then you'll need to install the C++ (v14x) Universal Windows Platform Tools optional component.

• Subsequent language VSIX fails to install into Visual Studio 2019 when multiple versions of Visual Studio 2019 are installed. If you have multiple versions of Visual Studio 2019 installed (e.g. Release and Preview) and then install the Windows App SDK VSIX for both C++ and C#, the second installation will fail. To resolve, uninstall the Single-project MSIX Packaging Tools for Visual Studio 2019 after the first language VSIX. View this feedback for additional information about this issue.

• If you want to co_await on the DispatcherQueue.TryEnqueue method, then use the resume_foreground helper function in the Windows Implementation Library (WIL):

  1. Add a reference to Microsoft.Windows.ImplementationLibrary NuGet package.
  2. Add the #include <wil/cppwinrt_helpers.h> statement to your code file.
  3. Use wil::resume_foreground(your_dispatcher); to co_await the result.

Version 0.8

The latest available release of the stable channel is the servicing release 0.8.5.

Version 0.8.5

This is a servicing release of the Windows App SDK that includes more critical bug fixes for the 0.8.0 release.

Bug fixes

• Fixed issue that was causing WinUI apps using pointer input to crash.
• Fixed issue causing the title bar buttons (min, max, close) to not have rounded corners on Windows 11.
• Fixed issue causing the resizing layout options to not appear when hovering over maximize/restore button on Windows 11.
• Fixed issue causing a crashing exception where creating a PointCollection object. For more information, see issue 971 on Github.

The limitations and known issues for version 0.8 also apply to version 0.8.5, unless marked otherwise in the section below.

Version 0.8.4

This is a servicing release of the Windows App SDK that includes more critical bug fixes for the 0.8.0 release.

Bug fixes

• Fixes for custom title bars so that ContentDialog doesn't cover it up, and the title bar buttons are rounded.
• Fix for a crash in image processing when the display scale is changed.
• Fixes clipping bugs where UI disappear or clipped incorrectly

The limitations and known issues for version 0.8 also apply to version 0.8.4, unless marked otherwise in the section below.

Version 0.8.3

This is a servicing release of the Windows App SDK that includes more critical bug fixes for the 0.8.0 release.

Bug fixes

Keyboard focus was being lost when a window was minimized and then restored, requiring a mouse click to restore focus.

The limitations and known issues for version 0.8 also apply to version 0.8.3, unless marked otherwise in the section below.

Version 0.8.2

This is a servicing release of the Windows App SDK that includes more critical bug fixes for the 0.8.0 release.

Bug fixes

• Windows App SDK and WinUI 3 are now supported in Visual Studio 2022 Preview 2 and later.
• For .NET apps, you may receive the following error when passing in an array of enums: Object contains non-primitive or non-blittable data.
• Writing using the HandWriting Panel inside a textbox causes a crash
• Icons/images always load at their 100% scale value rather than based on the monitor scale value
• Garbage collection of EventSource<T> causes subsequent failure to unsubscribe handlers (see GitHub issue for more details)
• Security fix – see CVE-2021-34533 for more details.
• SwapChainPanel.CompositionScaleChanged sometimes returning incorrect CompositionScale values after changing display scale

The limitations and known issues for version 0.8 also apply to version 0.8.2, unless marked otherwise in the section below.

Version 0.8.1

This is a servicing release of the Windows App SDK that includes a few critical bug fixes for the 0.8.0 release.

Bug fixes

• Windows App SDK cannot run on the latest Windows Insider build
• Crash in EditableComboBox when entering a value that does not appear in dropdown
• WebView2 doesn't allow user to tab out once focused has been received
• Fully qualify Windows.Foundation.Metadata.DefaultOverload namespace in WinUI generated code to avoid namespace ambiguity
  • This fixes bug #5108.
• Security fix – see CVE-2021-34489 for more details.

The limitations and known issues for version 0.8 also apply to version 0.8.1, unless marked otherwise in the section below.

Version 0.8.0 Stable

New features and updates

This release supports all stable channel features.

WinUI 3

This release includes many bug fixes and improved stabilization across WinUI 3. These are all of the new changes in WinUI 3 since the release of WinUI 3 - Project Reunion 0.5:

• The Pivot control has been added back in and can now be used in any WinUI 3 app.

• All bug fixes from Project Reunion v0.5.5, v0.5.6, and v0.5.7 are included with this release.

• New bug fixes, including:

  • Mouse right-click in TextBox crashes the application
  • NavigationView causes crash in UWP, Reunion 0.5 Preview
  • ProgressBar doesn't show difference between Paused and Error option
  • Crash in RichEditBox when copying/pasting/changing text style
  • Window caption buttons are misplaced when SetTitleBar is not set or null

  For the full list of bugs addressed in this release, see our GitHub repo.

• The ColorHelper.ToDisplayName API is no longer available.

• The following types have been removed:

  • Microsoft.Graphics.IGeometrySource2D
  • Microsoft.Graphics.IGeometrySource2DInterop

  Use Windows.Graphics.IGeometrySource2D and Windows.Graphics.IGeometrySource2DInterop instead.

• All types in the Microsoft.System namespace have been moved to the Microsoft.UI.Dispatching namespace, including the DispatcherQueue class.

• The AcrylicBrush.BackgroundSource property has been removed, since HostBackdrop is not supported as a BackgroundSource in WinUI 3.

For more information on WinUI, see Windows UI 3 Library (WinUI).

To see WinUI 3 controls and features in action, you can clone and build the WinUI 3 Controls Gallery app from GitHub, or download the app from the Microsoft Store.

To get started developing with WinUI, check out the following articles:

• WinUI 3 project templates in Visual Studio
• Get started developing apps with WinUI 3
• WinUI 3 desktop apps and basic Win32 interop
• WinUI 3 API Reference

DWriteCore

This release of DWriteCore includes the following new and updated features. DWriteCore is introduced and described in the DWriteCore overview.

• DWriteCore now has support for underline—see IDWriteTextLayout::GetUnderline and IDWriteTextLayout::SetUnderline.
• Support for strikethrough—see IDWriteTextLayout::GetStrikethrough and IDWriteTextLayout::SetStrikethrough.
• Support for vertical text via IDWriteTextLayout—see Vertical text.
• All of the methods of the IDWriteTextAnalyzer and IDWriteTextAnalyzer1 interfaces are implemented.
• The DWriteCoreCreateFactory free function creates a factory object that is used for subsequent creation of individual DWriteCore objects.

For DWriteCore and DirectWrite API reference, see DWriteCore API Reference and DirectWrite API Reference.

MRTCore

• The Build Action for resources is automatically set when you add the resource to your project, reducing the need for manual project configuration.

Limitations

• This release is not currently supported on the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program. This is fixed in version 0.8.1.

• Desktop apps (C# or C++ desktop): This release is supported for use only in desktop apps (C++ or C#) that are packaged using MSIX. To use the Windows App SDK in unpackaged desktop apps, you must use the experimental release channel.

Known issues

• WinUI 3 tooling such as Live Visual Tree, Live Property Explorer, and Hot Reload in version 0.8 and later requires Visual Studio 2019 16.11 Preview 3 and later.

• Apps currently using WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK 0.8 cannot use class libraries that use Project Reunion 0.5. Update the class libraries to use the Windows App SDK 0.8.

• .NET apps must target build 18362 or higher: Your TFM must be set to net5.0-windows10.0.18362 or higher, and your packaging project's must be set to 18362 or higher. For more info, see GitHub issue #921.

• You may encounter a crash when switching frequently between light and dark mode.

• For .NET apps, you may receive the following error when passing in an array of enums: Object contains non-primitive or non-blittable data. This is fixed in version 0.8.2.

• For .NET apps, there is currently no way to opt out of an image getting indexed as an app resource using the Visual Studio UI. To work around this, add a Directory.Build.targets (see Customize your build - Visual Studio for instructions) to the project and remove the image(s) as follows:

  • To remove specific images (note that the relative path is needed):

    <Project> 
    <ItemGroup> 
        <Content Remove="..\Bitmap1.bmp" />
    </ItemGroup>
    </Project>
    

  • To remove images based on metadata:

    <Project>
    <ItemGroup>
        <Content Remove="@(None->WithMetadataValue('Pack','true'))" />
    </ItemGroup>
    </Project>
    

  A fix for this issue is planned for an upcoming release - at that point, the above workarounds will no longer be needed.

Version 0.5

The latest available servicing release is 0.5.9.

New features and updates

This release supports all stable channel features.

Known issues and limitations

This release has the following limitations and known issues:

• Desktop apps (C# or C++ desktop): This release is supported for use only in desktop apps (C++ or C#) that are packaged using MSIX. To use the Windows App SDK in unpackaged desktop apps, you must use the experimental release channel.
• .NET apps must target build 18362 or higher: Your TFM must be set to net5.0-windows10.0.18362 or higher, and your packaging project's <TargetPlatformVersion> must be set to 18362 or higher. For more info, see the known issue on GitHub.

Related topics

• Preview channel
• Experimental channel
• Set up your development environment
• Create a new project that uses the Windows App SDK
• Use the Windows App SDK in an existing project
• Deploy apps that use the Windows App SDK