


WinUI 2 can be incorporated into production UWP apps by installing a NuGet package into a new or existing UWP project. UWP projects can migrate their project type to desktop to use WinUI 3. WinUI 3 is only supported in desktop-based projects. WinUI 2 supports C# and Visual Basic (.NET Native), and C++ apps. WinUI 3 supports C# (.NET 5 and later) and C++ for desktop apps. However, other significant parts of the UI stack are still built-in to the OS, such as the core XAML framework, input, and composition layers. With WinUI 2, these features ship in a downloadable NuGet package. Part of WinUI 2 ships within the operating system itself (the Windows.UI.* family of UWP WinRT APIs) and part of it ships as a library (“Windows UI Library 2”) with additional controls, elements and the latest styles on top of what’s already included in the operating system itself. WinUI 3 ships as a component of the Windows App SDK framework package, with Visual Studio project templates in the Windows App SDK Visual Studio Extension (VSIX). WinUI 2 can be used in UWP applications and incorporated into desktop applications using XAML Islands (for installation instructions, see Getting started with the WinUI 2 Library). WinUI 3 can be used to build production-ready desktop/Win32 Windows apps.

UX stack and control library tightly coupled to the OS and Windows 10 and later SDKs. UX stack and control library completely decoupled from the OS and Windows 10 and later SDKs, including the core framework, composition, and input layers of the UX stack. WinUI 2, the 2nd generation of WinUI, ships as a standalone NuGet package, and is integrated with Windows 10 and later SDKs. The following table highlights some of most significant differences between WinUI 3 and WinUI 2. Website: The WinUI website has product comparisons, explains the various advantages of WinUI, and provides ways to stay engaged with the product and the product team. Use the WinUI repo to file feature requests or bugs, interact with the WinUI team, and view the team's plans for WinUI 3 and beyond on their roadmap. Github: WinUI is an open-source project hosted on Github. While both can be used in production-ready apps on Windows 10 and later, each have different development targets and release schedules. At this time, there are two generations of the Windows UI Library (WinUI) under active development: WinUI 2 and WinUI 3.
