Data and files

This article provides an index of development features that are related to scenarios involving data and files in Windows apps.

Windows App SDK features

The Windows App SDK provides the following features related to data and files scenarios for Windows 10 and later OS releases.

Feature	Description
Manage resources with MRT Core	Use the MRT Core APIs in the Microsoft.Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources namespace to manage app resources such as strings and images in multiple languages, scales, and contrast variants independently of your app's logic. MRT Core is a streamlined version of the older resource management APIs in the Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources of the Windows platform.

Windows OS features

Windows 10 and later OS releases provide a wide variety of APIs related to data and files scenarios for apps. These features are available via a combination of WinRT and Win32 (C++ and COM) APIs provided by the Windows SDK.

WinRT APIs

The following articles provide information about features available via WinRT APIs provided by the Windows SDK.

Article	Description
App resources	Learn how to use the APIs in the Windows.ApplicationModel.Resources namespace and other related namespaces to manage app resources such as strings and images in multiple languages, scales, and contrast variants independently of your app's logic.
Data binding	Learn how to bind your app's UI to data and keep the UI in sync with changes to the data.
Files, folders, and libraries	Learn how to read and write text and other data formats in files, and to manage files and folders.

Win32 (C++ and COM) APIs

The following articles provide information about features available via Win32 (C++ and COM) APIs provided by the Windows SDK.

Article	Description
Menus and other resources	Learn how to manage app resources including icons, cursors, menus, dialog boxes, bitmaps, and much more.
Data access and storage	Learn about data access and storage scenarios involving file and file system management, database access, and much more.

.NET features

The .NET SDK also provides APIs related to data and files scenarios for WPF and Windows Forms apps.

Article	Description
Resources in .NET apps	Learn general strategies for managing app resources in .NET apps.
Application resource, content, and data files (WPF)	Learn how to manage app resources in WPF apps.
Application settings (Windows Forms)	Learn how to create, store, and maintain custom application and user preferences in Windows Forms apps.
LINQ	Learn how to use Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) to perform language-level data queries in .NET apps.
XML documents and data	Learn how to parse and write XML, edit XML data in memory, validate XML data, and perform XSLT transformations in .NET apps.
Entity Framework Core	Learn how to work with databases using Entity Framework Core in .NET apps.
Data binding (WPF)	Learn how to bind your WPF app's UI to data and keep the UI in sync with changes to the data.
Data binding (Windows Forms)	Learn how to bind your Windows Forms app's UI to data and keep the UI in sync with changes to the data.
File and stream I/O	Learn how to read and write on data streams and files in .NET apps, both synchronously and asynchronously.