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Windows App SDK
Windows App SDK (formerly known as Project Reunion) is a software development kit (SDK) from Microsoft that provides a unified set of APIs and components that can be used to develop desktop applications for both Windows 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 and later. The purpose of this project is to offer a decoupled implementation of capabilities which were previously tightly-coupled to the UWP app model. Windows App SDK allows native Win32 (USER32/GDI32) or .NET (WPF/WinForms) developers alike a path forward to enhance their apps with modern features.
It follows that Windows App SDK is not intended to replace the Windows SDK. By exposing a common application programming interface (API) primarily using the Windows Runtime (WinRT) through generated WinMD metadata, the tradeoffs which once characterized either app model are largely eliminated. NuGet packages for version 1.4 were released in August 2023 after approximately four months of development.
While Microsoft has developed a number of new features, some of the features listed below are abstractions of functionality provided by existing APIs.
Most of the investment into the decoupled UI stack has gone towards bug fixes, improvements to the debugging experience, and simplifying the window management capabilities made possible by switching from CoreWindow. An API abstracting USER32/GDI32 primitives known as AppWindow was introduced to expose a unified set of windowing capabilities and enable support for custom window controls.
A replacement for the UWP WebView control was announced early on. This is because it was based on an unsupported browser engine. A new Chromium-based control, named WebView2, was developed and can be used from WinUI as well as other supported app types.
While MSIX is included in the Windows App SDK and considered to be the recommended application packaging format, a design goal was to allow for unpackaged apps. These apps can be deployed as self-contained or framework-dependent. Support for dynamic loading of app dependencies is included for both packaged and unpackaged apps.
DWriteCore is being developed as a decoupled and device-independent solution for high-quality text rendering. Win2D has also been made available to WinUI 3 apps.
MRT Core allows for management of app resources for purposes such as localization. It is a decoupled version of the resource management system from UWP.
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Windows App SDK AI simulator
(@Windows App SDK_simulator)
Windows App SDK
Windows App SDK (formerly known as Project Reunion) is a software development kit (SDK) from Microsoft that provides a unified set of APIs and components that can be used to develop desktop applications for both Windows 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 and later. The purpose of this project is to offer a decoupled implementation of capabilities which were previously tightly-coupled to the UWP app model. Windows App SDK allows native Win32 (USER32/GDI32) or .NET (WPF/WinForms) developers alike a path forward to enhance their apps with modern features.
It follows that Windows App SDK is not intended to replace the Windows SDK. By exposing a common application programming interface (API) primarily using the Windows Runtime (WinRT) through generated WinMD metadata, the tradeoffs which once characterized either app model are largely eliminated. NuGet packages for version 1.4 were released in August 2023 after approximately four months of development.
While Microsoft has developed a number of new features, some of the features listed below are abstractions of functionality provided by existing APIs.
Most of the investment into the decoupled UI stack has gone towards bug fixes, improvements to the debugging experience, and simplifying the window management capabilities made possible by switching from CoreWindow. An API abstracting USER32/GDI32 primitives known as AppWindow was introduced to expose a unified set of windowing capabilities and enable support for custom window controls.
A replacement for the UWP WebView control was announced early on. This is because it was based on an unsupported browser engine. A new Chromium-based control, named WebView2, was developed and can be used from WinUI as well as other supported app types.
While MSIX is included in the Windows App SDK and considered to be the recommended application packaging format, a design goal was to allow for unpackaged apps. These apps can be deployed as self-contained or framework-dependent. Support for dynamic loading of app dependencies is included for both packaged and unpackaged apps.
DWriteCore is being developed as a decoupled and device-independent solution for high-quality text rendering. Win2D has also been made available to WinUI 3 apps.
MRT Core allows for management of app resources for purposes such as localization. It is a decoupled version of the resource management system from UWP.
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