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Windows Forms Controls and Equivalent WPF Controls

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Many Windows Forms controls have equivalent WPF controls, but some Windows Forms controls have no equivalents in WPF. This topic compares control types provided by the two technologies.

You can always use interoperation to host Windows Forms controls that do not have equivalents in your WPF-based applications.

The following table shows which Windows Forms controls and components have equivalent WPF control functionality.

Windows Forms control WPF equivalent control Remarks
BindingNavigator No equivalent control.
BindingSource CollectionViewSource
Button Button
CheckBox CheckBox
CheckedListBox ListBox with composition.
ColorDialog No equivalent control.
ComboBox ComboBox ComboBox does not support auto-complete.
ContextMenuStrip ContextMenu
DataGridView DataGrid
DateTimePicker DatePicker
DomainUpDown TextBox and two RepeatButton controls.
ErrorProvider No equivalent control.
FlowLayoutPanel WrapPanel or StackPanel
FolderBrowserDialog No equivalent control.
FontDialog No equivalent control.
Form Window Window does not support child windows.
GroupBox GroupBox
HelpProvider No equivalent control. No F1 Help. "What's This" Help is replaced by ToolTips.
HScrollBar ScrollBar Scrolling is built into container controls.
ImageList No equivalent control.
Label Label
LinkLabel No equivalent control. You can use the Hyperlink class to host hyperlinks within flow content.
ListBox ListBox
ListView ListView The ListView control provides a read-only details view.
MaskedTextBox No equivalent control.
MenuStrip Menu Menu control styling can approximate the behavior and appearance of the System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripProfessionalRenderer class.
MonthCalendar Calendar
NotifyIcon No equivalent control.
NumericUpDown TextBox and two RepeatButton controls.
OpenFileDialog OpenFileDialog The OpenFileDialog class is a WPF wrapper around the Win32 control.
PageSetupDialog No equivalent control.
Panel Canvas
PictureBox Image
PrintDialog PrintDialog
PrintDocument No equivalent control.
PrintPreviewControl DocumentViewer
PrintPreviewDialog No equivalent control.
ProgressBar ProgressBar
PropertyGrid No equivalent control.
RadioButton RadioButton
RichTextBox RichTextBox
SaveFileDialog SaveFileDialog The SaveFileDialog class is a WPF wrapper around the Win32 control.
ScrollableControl ScrollViewer
SoundPlayer MediaPlayer
SplitContainer GridSplitter
StatusStrip StatusBar
TabControl TabControl
TableLayoutPanel Grid
TextBox TextBox
Timer DispatcherTimer
ToolStrip ToolBar
ToolStripContainer ToolBar with composition.
ToolStripDropDown ToolBar with composition.
ToolStripDropDownMenu ToolBar with composition.
ToolStripPanel ToolBar with composition.
ToolTip ToolTip
TrackBar Slider
TreeView TreeView
UserControl UserControl
VScrollBar ScrollBar Scrolling is built into container controls.
WebBrowser Frame, System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser The Frame control can host HTML pages.

Starting in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, the System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser control can host HTML pages and also backs the Frame control.

See also