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Install tools for preview and experimental channels of the Windows App SDK

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Configure your development computer with the tools required to build Windows apps using the Windows App SDK (preview and experimental release channels) and WinUI.

Before installing any tools, see System requirements for Windows app development.

Important

This article applies only to the preview and experimental release channels of the Windows App SDK. For the stable release channel, see Install tools for the Windows App SDK.

Install Visual Studio

Use the following links to install Visual Studio 2022 (recommended) or Visual Studio 2019. You can choose between the free Visual Studio Community Edition, Visual Studio Professional, or Visual Studio Enterprise.

Download Visual Studio 2022

Download Visual Studio 2019

Required workloads and components

During Visual Studio installation, you have the option to install workloads and components (you can also open the Visual Studio Installer and select Modify to add workloads and components after installation). We recommend installing the following:

From within the Visual Studio Installer app:

  • On the Workloads tab:

    • For Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app development, select Universal Windows Platform development
      • Then in the Installation details pane of the installation dialog for that workload, make sure either C++ (v143) Universal Windows Platform tools (for Visual Studio 2022) or C++ (v142) Universal Windows Platform tools (for Visual Studio 2019) is selected.
    • For C# app development, select .NET Desktop Development
    • For C++ app development, select Desktop development with C++

  • On the Individual components tab, in the SDKs, libraries, and frameworks section, make sure Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0) is selected.

Preview release

The Windows App SDK includes Visual Studio project and item templates for creating and developing WinUI 3 apps. For a preview of the next stable release, install the latest extension from the preview release channel. For more info, see Preview release channel.

The templates are installed through a Visual Studio extension (VSIX).

Note

If you installed Windows App SDK C# Templates (an installation detail of the .NET Desktop Development workload) and/or Windows App SDK C++ Templates (an installation detail of the Desktop development with C++ workload), run the Visual Studio Installer to uninstall them before installing the VSIX.

C# Visual Studio 2022 extension

C++ Visual Studio 2022 extension

The extensions from the preview channel are available only from the download locations provided above. These extensions are not available through the Visual Studio Marketplace or the Manage Extensions dialog box in Visual Studio.

Note

If you install the C# version of the Windows App SDK 1.0 Preview 2 extension for Visual Studio 2019, and you want to use the Single-project MSIX Packaging Tools project template (see Package your app using single-project MSIX), then you must also install the Single-project MSIX Packaging Tools extension separately. The Blank App, Packaged (WinUI 3 in Desktop) project template has a known issue that results in a build error unless you also install the single-project packaging tools extension. This issue doesn't affect other versions of the Windows App SDK 1.0 Preview 2 extension.

Experimental release

For experimental features, install the latest extension from the experimental release channel. For more info, see Experimental release channel.

Choose one of these options to install the latest experimental release:

  • In Visual Studio, click Extensions > Manage Extensions, search for Windows App SDK (Experimental), and install the latest extension.
  • Alternatively, you can download and install the extension directly from Visual Studio Marketplace:

Download latest experimental release

For more versions of the Windows App SDK, see Downloads for the Windows App SDK.

Next steps

To create your first WinUI 3 app that uses the Windows App SDK, see Create your first WinUI 3 project.

Also see Use the Windows App SDK in an existing project.