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WinUI 3 is the native UI framework for building Windows desktop apps. It is part of the Windows App SDK — a set of APIs and tools that are separate from the Windows operating system itself and must be installed on the target machine or packaged alongside your app. WinUI 3 supports both C# and C++ and is not a cross-platform or web-based framework.
Important
WinUI 3 is distinct from UWP. WinUI 3 uses the Microsoft.UI.Xaml namespace and runs as a desktop process; UWP uses Windows.UI.Xaml and runs in an app container. WinUI 3 supports packaged (MSIX), packaged with external location, and unpackaged distribution — the right choice depends on your deployment scenario. See Choose a distribution method for guidance.
Choose your path
Two supported paths exist for creating a WinUI 3 project.
| Visual Studio | Command line | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Developers new to Windows development, visual UI designers, or anyone who wants a full IDE experience | Developers comfortable with the terminal, CI/CD pipelines, or scripted environment setup |
| Tooling | Visual Studio 2026 with the Windows App SDK and WinUI workloads installed | .NET 10 SDK with dotnet new WinUI templates |
| Project creation | New Project wizard — select the Blank App, Packaged (WinUI 3 in Desktop) template | dotnet new winui -n MyApp |
| Build and run | Press F5 — Visual Studio builds, signs, deploys the MSIX package, and launches the app | dotnet run — builds and launches the app with package identity (requires Developer Mode) |
| Debugging | Full Visual Studio debugger with XAML live preview | Attach a debugger manually or open the generated .sln in Visual Studio |
Both paths produce equivalent WinUI 3 projects. The Visual Studio path handles MSIX signing and deployment automatically. The command-line path uses dotnet run for local development (the included Microsoft.Windows.SDK.BuildTools.WinApp package handles debug identity automatically); packaging for distribution requires additional steps.
Build with an AI coding assistant
You can use an AI coding assistant with either development path. The assistant can generate project code and explain unfamiliar concepts, but you still need to constrain it to WinUI 3, build its changes, inspect the result, and verify Windows APIs against current documentation.
The AI-assisted WinUI tutorial teaches a repeatable Ask → Generate → Build → Inspect → Verify → Refine workflow. It also shows how to detect generated code that mixes WinUI 3 with UWP, WPF, or other Windows UI frameworks.
Prerequisites
Both paths share the same minimum requirements.
- Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763) or later — Windows 11 is recommended
- Developer Mode enabled on your device (
ms-settings:developers) - Visual Studio 2026 (Visual Studio path) or .NET 10 SDK (command-line path)
The Windows App SDK is a separate install from Windows. Visual Studio installs it as part of the workload setup. For the command-line path, the dotnet new winui templates bring in the required NuGet packages automatically.
Next steps
Collaborate with us on GitHub
The source for this content can be found on GitHub, where you can also create and review issues and pull requests. For more information, see our contributor guide.
Windows developer