Trending Features of .Net Core for Windows Desktop Applications

.NET Core 3.0 a has a lot to offer other than desktop application support. ASP.NET Core will continue to move forward in parallel and will have a release with .NET Core 3.0. The first preview of .NET Core 3 will be out later this year and the final version in 2019.

.NET Core 3

Some of the benefits that .NET Core will bring for desktop applications are mentioned below.

  • Performance improvements and other runtime updates
  • Easy to use or test a new version of .NET Core
  • Enables both machine-global and application-local deployment
  • Support for the .NET Core CLI tools and SDK-style projects in Visual Studio

The support system i.e. the Web, Data, AI/ML, Cross-platform support is still there in the .Net Core with this new version. The new part is, Windows Desktop packs to support Windows application on .Net Core only on the Windows OS.

New features in .NET Core 3.0

  • Side-by-side and App-local Deployment: The .NET Core deployment model is one the biggest benefits that Windows desktop developers will experience with .NET Core 3. In short, you can install .NET Core in pretty much any way you want. It comes with a lot of deployment flexibility. Deployment of .NET Core desktop applications can either use a global install of the .NET Core runtime (similar to how .NET Framework is deployed), or side-by-side deployment so that each application uses its own version of the runtime.
  • Easily convert existing Desktop applications to .Net Core 3: The conversion of existing desktop application to .NET Core 3.0 will be pretty effortless.
  • Improvement to Project Files: The .Net Core has adopted the SDK based project structure as it offers many advantages like:
    • Much smaller and cleaner project files
    • Much friendlier to source control (fewer changes and smaller diffs)
    • Edit project files in Visual Studio without unloading
    • NuGet is part of the build and responsive to changes like target framework update
    • Supports multi-targeting
  • You would be swayed to change the project files to the newer SDK based structure for your Windows desktop application to work on .Net Core 3.
  • Continue to support Controls, NuGet Packages, and Existing Assembly References: Desktop applications often have many dependencies, maybe from a control vendor, from NuGet or binaries that donā€™t have a source any more. .NET Core 3.0 will continue to support dependencies as-is without requiring developers to rewrite functionalities

Conclusion :-

Out of the many benefits with .NET Core that are great for desktop apps, there are a few that are worth calling out explicitly:

  • Performance improvements and other runtime updates that will delight your users
  • Super easy to use or test a new version of .NET Core for just one app on a machine
  • Enables both machine-global and application-local deployment
  • Support for the .NET Core CLI tools and SDK-style projects in Visual Studio
  • Access to the full Windows 10 (AKA ā€œWinRTā€) API.
  • Ability to host UWP XAML controls in WPF and Windows Forms applications.
  • Ability to host UWP browser and media controls, enabling modern browser and media content and standards.

Visualizing .NET Core 3

Hereā€™s a final look at .NET Core 3 in pictorial form.