Microsoft Releases Windows Template Studio 1.2

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Template Studio 1.2, the latest version of its Visual Studio extension that makes it easier than ever to create new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. The company also revealed some future features and that the Windows Template Studio has been accepted into the .NET Foundation.

As you may recall, Windows Template Studio is a replacement for the web-based Windows App Studio tool, which is being retired.

“We’re extremely excited to announce the Windows Template Studio 1.2,” Microsoft’s Clint Rutkaswrites. “In this release, our major new feature is adding content into an existing application with Right-click add. We’ve grown up past only File->New.”

Some other new features include:

Wizard improvements. The WTS wizard has been updated with content add via right-click, better template ordering, improved localization, and more.

New prompts. This release adds a first-time load prompt and a What’s New prompt.

Template improvements. References have been updated for the UWP Community Toolkit 1.5, and there are improvements to styling and template generation.

For a full list of what’s new, please refer to Microsoft’s GitHub repository.

Looking to the future, Microsoft says it will add the following features in coming versions of the product:

• Fluent design in the templates
• Project Rome features as options for your project
• Ink templates
• Improved Right-click->add support for existing projects
• Localization in the wizard
• Full accessibility supported in both wizard and in the templates
• Visual Basic support

Finally, Microsoft announced that the Windows Template Studio has been accepted into the .NET Foundation, alongside other open source .NET tools like .NET Core, the Roslyn compiler, and the UWP Community Toolkit.

If you’re already using the Windows Template Studio, you can upgrade to the new version automatically, or force it now by navigating to Tools > Extensions and Updates in Visual Studio. New users can download Windows Template Studio from the Visual Studio Marketplace.