Learn WinUI 3: Leverage WinUI and the Windows App SDK to create modern Windows applications with C# and XAML

by Alvin Ashcraft

Unlock the power of WinUI and supercharge your Windows app development with .NET and C# using this beginner's guide WinUI 3 takes a whole new approach to delivering Windows UI components and controls and has the ability to deliver the same features across multiple versions of Windows. Learn WinUI 3 is a comprehensive introduction to WinUI and Windows apps for anyone who is new to WinUI and XAML applications. This updated second edition begins by helping you get to grips with the latest features in WinUI and shows you how XAML is used in UI development. The next set of chapters will help you set up a new Visual Studio environment, develop a new desktop project, incorporate the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern in a WinUI project, and develop unit tests for ViewModel commands. Next, you’ll cover the basics of data access from WinUI projects with a step-by-step approach. As you advance, you’ll discover how to leverage the Fluent Design System to design beautiful WinUI applications. You’ll also explore the contents and capabilities of the Windows Community Toolkit and learn how to create cross-platform apps with markup and code from your project using Uno Platform. The concluding chapters will teach you how to build, debug, and deploy apps to the Microsoft Store. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to build WinUI applications from scratch and how to modernize existing desktop apps using WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK. This book is for anyone looking to develop applications for Windows with a modern UI. If you’re familiar with Windows desktop app development and want to enhance your knowledge of the latest Windows development techniques, this book is for you. Whether you're starting a new project or planning to modernize your existing Windows apps, this book will provide you with guidance. Hands-on experience with C# and .NET is expected, but no prior knowledge of WinUI or the Windows App SDK is required.

386 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2023

Reviews

[Paweł Rusin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book on how to develop modern apps on Windows. Later chapters go a bit astray, wish it was a bit more in depth on the WinUI 3 itself.

[Vytautas Valiukonis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book explaining what it meant to do: WinUI 3. Goes over history of this framework, why would one use it, starts by going through the basics of how to make a simple application with Visual Studio, the default MVVM pattern for such apps and goes on to various other side topics like multi-platform development and packaging. The packaging part is especially useful to anyone who has touched Windows and needed to deploy software, as it explains the new MSIX packages.

One nitpick I would have that this book explicitly explains the same requirements (you'll need Windows 10... ugh) and a few steps on how to open the solution, even though C# and .NET knowledge is assumed.

[Gavin Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to WinUI3, with many explanations on history of Windows app dev. It's good that the book contains a real working app(though simple), and packaging is also slightly tapped on.

The biggest problem is that the code snippets organization is a bit confusing, sometimes the later-UI-codes are presented firstly which causes no hints in VS, and only after that the models/services are provided.

Overall, it's a nice book. But it's only introductory which doesn't touch any deeper knowlodge on XAML/Native APIs/Rendering.