WinUI 3 and Windows App SDK

Trigger On

• building native modern Windows desktop UI on WinUI 3
• integrating Windows App SDK features into a .NET app
• deciding between WinUI, WPF, WinForms, and MAUI for Windows work
• implementing MVVM patterns in Windows App SDK applications

Workflow

1. Confirm WinUI is the right choice — use when modern Windows-native UI, Fluent Design, and Windows App SDK capabilities are needed. For cross-platform, consider MAUI instead.
2. Choose packaging model early — packaged (MSIX) vs unpackaged differ materially for deployment, identity, and API access:

   <!-- Unpackaged: add to .csproj -->
   <WindowsPackageType>None</WindowsPackageType>
   

3. Apply MVVM pattern with the MVVM Toolkit — keep views dumb, logic in ViewModels:

   public partial class ProductsViewModel : ObservableObject
   {
       [ObservableProperty]
       private ObservableCollection<Product> _products = [];
   
       [ObservableProperty]
       [NotifyCanExecuteChangedFor(nameof(DeleteCommand))]
       private Product? _selectedProduct;
   
       [RelayCommand(CanExecute = nameof(CanDelete))]
       private async Task DeleteAsync()
       {
           if (SelectedProduct is null) return;
           await _productService.DeleteAsync(SelectedProduct.Id);
           Products.Remove(SelectedProduct);
       }
       private bool CanDelete() => SelectedProduct is not null;
   }
   

4. Use x:Bind for compiled bindings — better performance and compile-time checking than {Binding}:

   <TextBlock Text="{x:Bind ViewModel.Title, Mode=OneWay}"/>
   

5. Wire DI through Host.CreateDefaultBuilder — register services, ViewModels, and views. Resolve via App.GetService<T>().
6. Implement navigation service — map ViewModels to Pages by convention. See references/patterns.md for the full pattern.
7. Handle Windows App SDK features — windowing (AppWindow), custom title bar, app lifecycle, notifications.
8. Always set XamlRoot when showing ContentDialog — omitting this causes silent failures.
9. Validate on Windows targets — behavior depends on runtime, packaging model, and Windows version.

Current Upstream Notes

• Windows App SDK 2.3.1 adds schema-constrained Phi Silica JSON output, XamlOptionalChanges, ARM64EC support for Windows ML, Video Super Resolution improvements, and opt-in XAML startup/style/resource-lookup optimizations.
• Windows App SDK 1.8.11 is the current 1.8 servicing patch. It restores focus after storage pickers, fixes MRT fallback resolution, and isolates runtime base-directory environment state; retest picker return focus, resource fallback, and side-by-side runtime activation when maintaining the 1.8 line.
• For unpackaged apps, prefer ApplicationData.GetForUnpackaged() over registry or custom folder conventions when the app needs first-class app data storage.
• When upgrading to 2.3.1, retest unpackaged LocalSettings, background tasks, side-placement flyouts, MediaPlayerPresenter device loss, popup pointer replay, ItemsRepeater layouts, Windows ML, and any opted-in XAML change IDs.

flowchart LR
  A["Choose WinUI"] --> B["Select packaging model"]
  B --> C["MVVM + DI setup"]
  C --> D["Navigation and views"]
  D --> E["Windows App SDK features"]
  E --> F["Validate on target runtime"]

Key Decisions

Decision	Guidance
Packaged vs unpackaged	Packaged (MSIX) for Store, auto-update, and full API access; unpackaged for simpler deployment
x:Bind vs Binding	Always prefer x:Bind — compiled, faster, type-safe
MVVM Toolkit attributes	Use [ObservableProperty], [RelayCommand] to eliminate boilerplate
Navigation	Convention-based ViewModel→Page mapping via navigation service
Theming	Use RequestedTheme on root element; respect system theme by default

Deliver

• modern Windows UI code with clear platform boundaries
• explicit deployment and packaging assumptions
• MVVM pattern with testable ViewModels
• cleaner interop between shared and Windows-specific layers

Validate

• WinUI is chosen for a real product reason, not defaulted to
• Windows App SDK dependencies are explicit in the project file
• packaging and runtime assumptions are tested on target
• x:Bind is used for compiled bindings throughout
• navigation and ContentDialog both work with correct XamlRoot
• custom title bar renders correctly on Windows 10 and 11

References

• references/patterns.md - WinUI 3 patterns including MVVM, navigation services, DI setup, windowing, theming, dialogs, and lifecycle handling
• references/anti-patterns.md - common WinUI mistakes with explanations and corrections