Updates on .NET Core Windows Forms designer

Olia Gavrysh

We released a preview version of Visual Studio 16.6 – Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6 Preview 1 and with it a new version of .NET Core Windows Forms designer.

.NET Core Windows Forms designer in Visual Studio

This release contains

  • Support for the following controls:

    • FlowLayoutPanel,
    • GroupBox,
    • ImageList,
    • MenuStrip (via the PropertyBrowser and context menu),
    • Panel,
    • SplitContainer,
    • Splitter,
    • TabControl,
    • TableLayoutPanel,
    • ToolStrip (via the PropertyBrowser, context menu and designer actions).
  • Local resources and localized forms were enabled in the designer.

  • Support for LayoutMode and ShowGrid/SnapToGrid settings via Tools->Options.

  • Reliability and performance improvements.

  • Other minor fixes and tweaks.

Coming next

In the future releases we will be working on User Controls and third-party controls support, integration with popular controls vendors, support for Data Controls and related scenarios, performance improvements and other features.

How to use the designer

  • You need to use Visual Studio Preview channel
  • You need to enable the designer in Visual Studio. Go to Tools > Options > Environment > Preview Features and select the Use the preview Windows Forms designer for .NET Core apps option.

Enabling .NET Core Windows Forms designer in Visual Studio Settings

How to report issues

Your feedback is important to us! Please report issues and send feature requests via the Visual Studio Feedback channel. Use the “Send Feedback” icon in Visual Studio top-right corner as shown below and specify that it is related to the “WinForms .NET Core” area.

Visual Studio Feedback channel

66 comments

Discussion is closed. Login to edit/delete existing comments.

  • Tony Henrique 0

    Very cool!

  • Johnnyxp64 0

    how many controls are left so far?

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      The current version is missing: Dialogs, Components, Data, User Controls and a few other controls (NotifyIcon, PropertyGrid, HScrollBar, VScrollBar, DomainUpDown, TrackBar)

      The next version will have many of them in.

      • Arnel Isiderio Robles 0

        Hi. Will this be also available soon for Linux?

        • Tyler 0

          Why would it be available for Linux? Visual Studio isn’t available for Linux and Windows Forms is Windows-only.

        • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

          No, WinForms and WPF will remain Windows-only because they are build on top of Windows APIs.

          • Joey Alonzo 0

            If Winform will work only in Windows, then what difference it will make if I will just stay in .Net Framework.

      • Bancroft, Matt 0

        Any news on whether ListView and TreeView support is being added?

        • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

          They were enabled a while ago. We have a few known issues related to them, which we will fix in the future.

  • Nick 0

    So what version of the designer ships with 16.5? I had a test project I was using without the designer and after the 16.5 update double clicking on a form in the Solution Explorer launches a designer of some sort without adding any extensions or turning on any preview features (it’s the 16.5 release, not a preview). Before the update double clicking a form went directly to code view. The containers don’t seem to work right though, I can’t add anything to group boxes and when controls on tab pages seem to snap back to the top left.

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      The preview version was enabled by mistake in 16.5 and fixed in the 16.5.1 update. Now the release channel of VS (16.5.1 and up) has .NET Framework WinForms designer for .NET Framework apps and no designer (yet) for .NET Core apps. And in the VS 16.6 Preview 1 there is a preview .NET Core WinForms designer for .NET Core apps and .NET Framework WinForms designer for .NET Framework apps.

  • Pachara Rodphaya 0

    Nice work!! Keep it up.

    Anyway. . .Will this version of Windows Form support a Crystal Report Viewer and Report Viewer (or any new tools for creating report) ??

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      This is in our backlog to investigate. Thank you for bringing it up, good feedback!

    • Philip Njoroge 0

      If only you all knew how happy devs are to see this comment in our start-up… Crystal report is the only thing tieing us to .net Framework

  • Irakli Lomidze 0

    When we could expect final completed version of designer ?

    is it planed until .net 5 ?
    when third parties will be supported ?

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      We expect to have a mature version by mid of May.
      We are already working with the control vendors, we might have some support by May, but fully supported they should be by .NET 5

  • russ lunn 0

    NICE!

    will this now properly support hidpi screens and scaling in the ide without having to restart in 100% scaling mode?

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      Not yet, for now HighDpiMode is set by default to SystemAware and we plan to continue working on HiDPI improvements.

  • Reelix 0

    I’m using the newly released 16.5.0 on a .NET Core Project. All the mentioned controls (Except the MenuStrip, TableLayoutPanel, and Toolstrip) are already there. You might need to update what is actually coming in 16.6 and what is already available in the existing version 🙂

  • Maurice Dietzel 0

    Will the chart control also be available?

  • Larry Meadows 0

    Very nice,

    How about NATIVE support for the menu tray, using windows form and WPF.

    We should also be able to create custom style menus and radial menus.

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      Could you describe the scenario in more details?

  • John Dekker 0

    Olia, I am really grateful for all work being done and look forward to it’s completion. I have tried converting some of my existing apps to .net core but have decided to wait until the designer is finished.
    I know this doesn’t help you much as far as feedback goes but I guess I could start using the designer in the later previews when all the components are at least implemented.
    Regards,
    John.

    • Olia GavryshMicrosoft employee 0

      Thank you John! ❤
      Yes, you can check out VS 16.6 GA version, it should have coverage for all your controls.

Feedback usabilla icon