WinUI vs WPF, WinForms, and UWP

WinUI (Windows UI Library) is the latest in a long line of UI frameworks from Microsoft for developing Windows software applications. You might be wondering why you would choose WinUI over the older frameworks that still exist and are supported by Microsoft.

Let’s look a little deeper into earlier .NET Windows platforms to see how WinUI compares to its predecessors and why you might choose WinUI for your next C# desktop application. In this article, we will cover:

• Comparing WinUI to Earlier Frameworks
• .NET WinForms (Windows Forms)
• WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)
• WinRT & UWP (Universal Windows Platform)
• WinUI 3.0 & .NET MAUI

Comparing WinUI to Earlier Frameworks

Over the past 30+ years, Microsoft has maintained a large number of frameworks for developing and distributing software for its own Windows operating system. Before .NET, you could build applications for Windows using Visual Basic or C++.

• Visual Basic 6 and ActiveX are obsolete technologies and are no longer supported by Microsoft or third-party software vendors.
• Visual C++ and MFC are still supported, but are no longer cutting-edge technologies. MFC (The Microsoft Foundation Class) remains relevant in specific contexts, particularly for maintaining legacy systems or when low-level Windows API access is required.

Our comparison will focus on the newer .NET Windows frameworks and technologies. We will also include WinRT and UWP in our comparison because they serve as the direct predecessors to WinUI and offer some unique features and background to WinUI.

The table below provides a high-level overview of each framework.

There are several key differences between WinUI and earlier frameworks. In the sections that follow, we’ll dive a bit deeper into each framework.

.NET WinForms (Windows Forms)

In 2002, Microsoft released WinForms along with the .NET Framework. WinForms offers reusable UI controls and functionality, and like MFC, it also acts as an object-oriented wrapper over Win32 for the rapid development of native Windows applications. Windows Forms .NET applications are developed using Visual Studio with the help of visual designers. This enables drag-and-drop functionality and a preview of the application before compilation, significantly simplifying the build process for desktop applications. The user interface is defined by C# code generated automatically by the WYSIWYG designer.

After nearly two decades, WinForms development is going strong with .NET 10 and ComponentOne WinForms UI controls, continuously expanding the UI options available to developers. WinForms applications can be written with C# or VB.NET.

The standard .NET toolbox provides the basic building blocks for your UI (buttons, text boxes, etc.), but adding third-party libraries such as ComponentOne gives you access to richer controls, including ribbon toolbars, docking tabs, charts, and more.

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WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)

WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) was released with .NET 3.0 in 2006 as a potential replacement for WinForms. It uses XAML (similar to XML) to define and separate the user interface from C# or VB.NET code.

WPF is built upon DirectX, a lower-level rendering engine that allows optimal performance on Windows. WinForms uses GDI+ (Graphics Device Interface), a legacy graphics drawing library. WPF takes advantage of modern 2D and 3D graphics hardware, animations, styles, and media. It offers a similar drag-and-drop experience for developing user interfaces, though the design-time experience is not as complete as WinForms and often forces developers to work directly in XAML markup to fine-tune the interface.

Did you know that parts of Visual Studio itself are written in WPF?

WinRT & UWP (Universal Windows Platform)

While apps built with MFC, WinForms, and WPF are called desktop or Win32 apps, UWP apps are called Universal Windows Apps, or sometimes, Windows Store apps. In 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8 and introduced two completely new application UI frameworks named WinJS and WinRT (Windows Runtime) XAML, so developers could write apps in either JavaScript or C# and XAML. However, the JavaScript arm didn’t last long, and by the time Windows 10 was released, the C# and XAML branch remained but was referred to as UWP for short.

Since UWP is not built on Win32, it only features a subset of full Windows functionality. It was designed to be lighter and more “modern”—think “tablet app” rather than a high-horsepower desktop application.

UWP uses XAML to define the user interface just like WPF, but for some reason, Microsoft gave up on delivering the same drag-and-drop design-time experience in Visual Studio. With UWP (and later WinUI), developers must write their entire UI by manually typing XAML. The application logic can be written with C# or C++.

The UWP framework uses Windows Runtime (WinRT) APIs to provide powerful UI features, and it’s distributed alongside Windows updates to take your application to the next level. UWP works by using a virtual registry and system files to avoid conflicts with other apps.

One of the main drawbacks and the death knell of UWP was that it required users to update to the latest Windows version to access fixes, improvements, and new UI controls. This requirement was a bit of a bottleneck for users who could not constantly update to the latest version of Windows. Microsoft had to design a new framework, now known as WinUI, to solve this problem.

In 2024, Microsoft released an upgrade path for UWP apps to modernize and use the latest version of .NET. This appears to extend the life of UWP apps but is not a long-term solution.

WinUI 3.0 & .NET MAUI

WinUI, the latest Windows app framework for Windows 10 and 11, uses the Windows App SDK and WinUI 3.0. The community commonly refers to these apps as WinUI apps, though technically, UWP apps use WinUI 2.0, which can be a bit confusing.

Unlike UWP, which is compatible only with Windows 10 devices, WinUI is backward-compatible with earlier versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11. WinUI is decoupled from Windows, making updates easier. For example, with WinUI 3.0, you can build and ship apps with new features without waiting for users to run the latest Windows update.

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is a cross-platform framework for building native mobile and desktop applications from a single C# and XAML codebase. It extends Xamarin.Forms enabling apps to run on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows without maintaining separate projects. The Windows desktop branch of this output uses WinUI 3.0.

WinUI Benefits

Let’s explore some benefits of building apps with the latest WinUI platform compared to other frameworks.

• Modern UI with Fluent Design: Compared to MFC, WinForms, and WPF, WinUI provides a modern, fluent design out of the box, so your application will feel up to date.
• Easy to Update: Unlike UWP, developers can use the latest WinUI controls without updating Windows since the app SDK is uncoupled from the Windows SDK.
• Publish Windows Store or Win32 apps: You get the best of both worlds as you can develop a modern, Windows Store-style application or a Win32 app that has the same capabilities as MFC, WinForms, and WPF.
• Backward Compatibility: WinUI provides backward compatibility with a wide range of Windows 10 versions. For example, users who aren’t on the latest version of Windows 10 can build and ship apps with new XAML features immediately after they are released.
• Support for JavaScript: With React Native support, you can create and distribute native Windows apps with WinUI developed using JavaScript components. Its features include automatic linking of native modules, improved theming support, and a navigation menu.
• Uses XAML: Unlike MFC and WinForms, WinUI uses XAML to define the UI, enabling seamless styling, data binding, templating, and a clear separation of UI from business logic.
• XAML Islands: You can use WinUI to create “XAML Islands,” incrementally adding WinUI elements to existing WPF, WinForms, or MFC applications, modernizing the UI without a complete rewrite.
• Scale to Android, iOS, and macOS: By developing with .NET MAUI, you can create WinUI applications that scale instantly to mobile versions for Android, iOS, and macOS.
• Scale to the Web and Linux: The Uno Platform lets you build WinUI 3-compatible apps that run cross‑platform, including on Windows PC, WebAssembly (browser), Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android. This layer is built on top of .NET MAUI and adds additional outputs.

WinUI Disadvantages

Although WinUI is an improvement over older frameworks, it does have some disadvantages.

• No Windows 7 Support: WinUI cannot run or be deployed on Windows 7. However, the Uno platform does add this support.
• No WYSIWYG Designer in Visual Studio: Without a user-friendly, drag-and-drop design surface, getting up and running can be more difficult.
• Less Mature: Compared to WinForms or WPF, the community and vendor-provided controls available for WinUI are much fewer. You can see the ComponentOne WinUI controls that are available today.
• Less Stable: Given that Microsoft keeps re-inventing the frameworks behind modern Windows apps, from WinJS and Windows 8 to UWP and WinUI, it would not be surprising if they take another sharp turn in the future. Many developers are concerned that the future is not clear.
• Can’t Deploy to Xbox: Unlike UWP, WinUI never received XBox support.

With ComponentOne Studio Enterprise, you can get the same advanced controls like FlexGrid, FlexChart, and FlexReport for WinUI.

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Conclusion

WinUI 3.0 is the latest in a long line of .NET UI frameworks by Microsoft. The core difference between WinUI and earlier frameworks is the access to fluent design and modern-looking UI controls without requiring an updated SDK. Although it has some disadvantages and an unclear future compared to older frameworks, many developers have switched to WinUI for its flexibility, backward compatibility, and cross-platform support through .NET MAUI.

Next read: WinUI Tips & Tricks for WinForms Developers