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I have a general idea, and there are some obvious cases, but there are also some gray areas for me - when is it best to use to extend from a component and when is it best to create a user control? This pertains to a specific work problem I am trying to solve, but the specifics of that are not important - a general answer to this question is enough for me.
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The difference between a control and a component is that a control has a user interface and a component does not.
CustomControl is a loosely coupled control w.r.t code and UI while UserControl is a tightly coupled control w.r.t code and UI. When using CustomControl UI can be changed in different projects but for a UserControl UI is fixed and can't have different looks in different project.
User controls are a way of making a custom, reusable component. A user control can contain other controls but must be hosted by a form. Windows forms are the container for controls, including user controls. While it contains many similar attributes as a user control, it's primary purpose is to host controls.
A customControl can be styled and templated and best suited for a situation when you are building a Control Library. On the contrary, a UserControl gives you an easy way to define reusable chunk of XAML which can be reused widely in your application and when you don't need to use it as a Control Library .
In WPF and Windows Forms, both, the main difference is that a UserControl is meant to be a collection of controls - a reusable, single object "composed" from multiple controls themselves.
You'd impelemnt a Component/CustomControl/Control instead of a UserControl if you are making a single, primitive control with new behavior, instead of making a "control" that's composed of smaller controls. Component usually is a non-visual behavior, where a CustomControl/Control is usually for a visual control.
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