What is the difference between "windows application" and "windows forms application"

Question

I was trying to use a third-party component developed in C# in a VB.NET project. When I tried to add the component to the toolbox the components were always greyed out - disabled. After much searching on this problem (example, one of many: Visual Studio 2010 toolbox controls disabled or inactive) I found that the components were probably not enabled because they were created for a different sort of project. The usual example given is "web application" vs. "windows application".

I looked at the demo project that came with the components and the demo project output type is "Windows Application". The VB.NET project I'm trying to build using the component is a "Windows Forms Application". Since this is VS Express, these are the only Windows application types available in the two projects.

My question is, what is the difference between these two output types? Both output types are <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType> in the project file. Can I rebuild the components to work in a "Windows Forms Application" and if so, how?

Answer 1

Look here

In the case of "Microsoft Windows", windows programs are software applications that are run on a computer that is also running Microsoft Windows as an operating system. A software application, or program, is a set of logical conditions grouped together to perform some function. Typically a Microsoft Windows application will be run within a "window" although that is not a requirement. A "window" in the context of software is an area of the screen set aside to run a single program and may or may not have options for controlling the position and size of the program area. Some examples of Microsoft Windows applications are:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Notepad
• Mozilla Firefox

and here another post

Windows *Forms* (WinForms) is the name given to the graphical application programming interface (API) included as a part of Microsoft .NET Framework, providing access to native Microsoft Windows interface elements by wrapping the extant Windows API in managed code. While it is seen as a replacement for the earlier and more complex C++ based Microsoft Foundation Class Library, it does not offer a paradigm comparable to Model–View–Controller. Some after-market and third party libraries have been created to provide this functionality. The most widely used of these is the User Interface Process Application Block, which is released by the Microsoft patterns & practices group as a free download that includes the source code for quick start examples.

also Windows Application include and WPF application (WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation) and Windows Form Application

WPF - look here

Hope this information wiil be helpfull for you