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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.
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
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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