32-bit components can impose challenges for WinForms developers in a 64-bit Visual Studio environment, but there are options to solve this. Component modernization, migrating to .NET 6+ and a new option to use the out-of-process Designer for Framework are the key to a feasible way forward!

Since .NET 6, we updated the WinForms runtime to support and improve the Visual Basic Application Framework. In Visual Studio 2022, we also modernized the related user experience. Time to take a closer look how all this works behind the scenes, lets you move from .NET Framework to .NET 6/7+ and provides a great opportunity to modernize your WinForm...

When you design a WinForms Form, it gets generated into a method called InitializeComponent. When you reopen that Form, it gets recreated by interpreting that code. In Visual Studio 2022 17.5, we've modernized the code generation process. And made some changes.

The WinForms code-behind approach has always made app development in WinForms unrivaled fast. For complex line-of-business apps, however, it can become an architectural challenge. New Command- and Data Binding Features in .NET 7 make UI-Controllers and MVVM an alternative and allow them also be reused in UI stacks like .NET MAUI.

A rich user control ecosystem has always been one of the most important WinForms success guarantors. While the runtime support for Custom Controls remains unchanged, there are breaking changes with the design time support for the new Windows Forms (WinForms) .NET Designer.

Databinding in the Windows Forms OOP Designer focuses on Object Data Sources, and it has a different approach to set up data sources compared to the .NET Framework Designer. Read what you need to know about Databinding in WinForms for .NET apps.

The Windows Forms designer for .NET is ready for prime time! There will be differences if you previously have used the designer with .NET Framework apps. In this blog post, I break down what you need to know.

Visual Studio 16.8 and .NET 5.0 for the first time fully support Windows Forms Designer and the VB Application Framework.