.NET Core - Is there a way to implement WinForms?

Question

I'm currently making a bot for a discord server with Discord.NET and I'd like to create a WinForm for this instead of a console. Is there a way to implement WinForms to a .NET Core app?

Answer 1

Starting from .NET Core 3.0, you can create Windows Forms applications using .NET Core.

VS 2019

The project template is available in VS 2019.

VS 2017

You need to have Visual Studio 2017 Update 15.8 or higher.

1. Install Visual Studio 2017 Update 15.8 or higher
   _{[Visual Studio download site.]}

2. Install the latest .NET Core 3.0 SDK
   _{[daily build (latest changes, but less stable) or preview (more stable, recommended)].}

3. Open command prompt and run the following command to create the project:

   dotnet new winforms -o MyWinFormsApp
   

4. To build and run the project, you can go to the directory in which the project is created and open MyWinFormsApp.csproj using Visual Studio, build and run it.

   You can also run the following commands if you prefer to build and run from command line:

   cd MyWinFormsApp
   dotnet build
   dotnet run
   

Note

• Project Template: The project template is available in VS 2019.
• Designer: Along with GA release of .NET Core 3.0, Windows Forms Designer Preview 1 has also been released and can be used in VS 2019. Also starting from Visual Studio 16.5 Preview 1 and by release of .NET CORE 3.1, Visual Studio has built in support for designer. Take a look at this post. But keep in mind, in this release, many controls aren’t yet supported in designer.

Related links

• Updates to .NET Core Windows Forms designer in Visual Studio 16.5 Preview 1
• Announcing .NET Core 3 Preview 1 and Open Sourcing Windows Desktop Framework
• .NET Core Windows Form GitHub Repository
• WinForms on .NET Core Roadmap
• .NET Core Windows Forms Samples
• Porting existing applications to .NET Core 3.0