C# Compare Windows Forms vs WPF vs UWP

C# Compare Windows Forms vs WPF vs UWP What kinds of desktop applications can you make in C# with Visual Studio? Which kind is recommended?

Programming in C# course playlist

[bounty]

WPF has many more advantages: you can use vector graphics, build an application compliant to automated tests, etc.
Anyways it's too complex for beginners.

[GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

What's funny is, coming from Java background back in my RIT days, when we approached UI, we learned the java method of creating a flow of grids, panels, etc. and adding elements to initialize the window in our constructor which would add elements in sequence and "build" the scalable page. This was back in 2006-2008ish. We were coding for Sun Solaris machines or Linux machines. The approach is basically how WPF/UWP kinda sorta work. lol. Back before Vista and WPF were even a thing.
In the "newer" XML layout, you can both construct your XAML file, or you can add elements to each stackpanel, grid, etc. in code with Children.Add, etc. which is actually quite familiar to how I'd build a gui in Java back in the day. lol
Also, while I'm new to Windows development and happened to peek in here, while "WinForms" may have only existed since 2002/XP, the concept of a "Form" with drag and drop UI elements dates back to Visual Basic 3 for Windows 3.1 or perhaps even earlier. lol. It's almost the same concept.

[lukaskob-themightyblueape]

Hi. :) UWP now works on Xbox, tablets, PCs, HoloLens also. And was working on Windows Phone too. The UWP apps are no longer full screen. They are just like any other app in a window.

[starkex]

WFA - Good, but very limited, when designing UI it is pain, you can't moving form, every is very slow and stuttering.
WPF - vector graphics, fast, smooth, but harder to learn/understand, ifyou are new and never do at least WFA App. And you need to know something little about XML (but actually you do not have, believe me)

My recommendation is WPF not only for smooth newer designing, but also it is overall better.

[wayahedia]

Skip WinForms altogether and use WPF. WPF is not an enhanced version of WinForms. If you're telling your students to skip WPF and learn Winforms you're wasting their time, in 2020.

[naufalam]

does uwp app is the same as windows 8's metro app?

[BobcatSchneidermann]

Thank you sir, that was a very informative video.

[VilerVicious]

Hello. I am literally getting crazy, trying to implement an USB controller (like a joystick or gamepad) that will allow navigation inside my tiny windows forms application (it's very basic: a menu with 4 buttons, that is all). I can't find a proper way to do that. Can anybody help me please? I am using Visual Studio code 2022, running .NET 4.8. THanks!!

[attalaw]

Thank you that is a very useful course 👍 1000.

[fnfal]

I'd go winforms for small apps that doesn't need complex UI designing, its just that efficient and gets the job done. in the end users does not give a fuck about what stack you used but how you resolve their problems

[baseljuma]

UWP is for windows 10 applications you can develop an app that can be in Microsoft store

[CubeAmaterasu]

thank you very much, I'm coming from web development (mongodb, expressjs, angular, nodejs)
And i can relate windows forms pretty much as a frontend framework to build the user interfaces (like bootstrap) but with a drag and drop builder aproach...
based on this, what would be the equivalent for ExpressJS in this windows enviroment? i would like to build a REST API pointing out to my Mongo or SQL database...

[ebentechstudio]

why don't we drag and drop the controls from the toolbox onto the wpf window to quickly create the UI as we do in winforms? please can you help me with this ? because it seems it takes alot of time to craete the UI for wpf.

[blackberry]

At last someone who shows what you are going to dive into

[aljiee]

WinForms - good for applications that doesn't need a good-looking UI
WPF - good for applications that needs a good-loooking UI and more stable
UWP - good for applications if you want your UI to look like Windows 10 or 11 (sinceadapts the modern fluent design UI)

personally, i don't recommend using WinForms. It is very hard to design your UI there. i prefer UWP then WPF

[sfidencio]

Windows Forms viverá ainda por muitos anos, podem acredita. Embora WPF seja flexível quando se trata de [INTERFACE RESPONSIVE], mas com Windows Forms, trabalhando com componentes por exemplo da DevExpress, é possível realizar muitos feitos. Me acostumo fácil com HTML e CSS, mas com essas TAG's XAML parece que não vai..eu ainda gosto do System.Windows.Forms, os [EVENTS]...e etc.., trabalhar com DataGridView, ListView, TreeView enfim, muito mais produtivo que trabalhar com interfaces WPF e UWP...

[TuTAH_]

I used WinForms before, just switched to WPF and althrough I like xaml, I feel how much its limited. I can't imagin how can anyone call WPF a great framework if it doesn't have such basic things as graphs, Textbox's placeholder, etc. out of the box. If I click "open all WPF Controls, it can fit just in one screen

[InventorDBA]

Wait, so is winforms outdated or not and should I use it in 2021? I am getting confused by the comment section.

[robwalker]

This is all very misleading. I've been working with desktop applications in windows since about 2002 and have used winforms, wpf, metro/uwp/winui 3. I wouldn't advise people to go with windows forms. Whilst it's still supported and I still work on windows forms projects. WPF is much better. If you like the drag drop functionality of winforms you can still do all that with WPF. But you can also build a form from code if you're more used to building apps with html and css. But the GUI with wpf is much more performant as it uses DirectX to render. So when it comes to wanting to go beyond the basic existing tools you have more options. It also supports animations if you want to make your interface a little slicker. WPF is also easier to quickly design forms that will work on multiple screen resolutions/scales in my experience. There's also more support for touch screens.

UWP has more similarities with WPF than winforms as they both use XAML as the design language, but the major difference is that UWP was designed to run on the windows store platform.

[LifeWithSeb]

I thought it's XAML not XML? Or is it the same thing?