Microsoft Releases Windows App SDK 1.1

Microsoft has finally released Windows App SDK 1.1, the latest version of its development platform for creating modern Windows desktop apps. The release was widely expected to occur during Build 2022 in May, but it’s finally available now.

“To help you build native, engaging, and modern Windows applications, we’ve just released the 1.1 version of the Windows App SDK,” the Windows Developer Team writes. “Building off of the 1.0 release in November 2021, we’re excited to bring several new features and capabilities to the Windows App SDK while increasing its stability and performance.”

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The Windows App SDK—previously codenamed Project Reunion—is Microsoft’s attempt to bring the modern app capabilities that debuted in Windows 8 and were later renamed to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to desktop app developers. It is, in Microsoft’s words, a set of libraries, frameworks, components, and tools, and is where the software giant will deliver new Windows functionality for developers when possible.

Looked at another way, the Windows App SDK decouples UWP and other modern capabilities from specific Windows versions; any app that uses the SDK will run on any supported version of Windows 10 or 11. The first version of the Windows App SDK supported WinUI 3, text rendering, resource management, app lifecycle, and windowing capabilities, and was, of course, notable for being the first version of the SDK.

But the 1.1 version adds many more features. Among them are support for push notifications, multiple windows, elevation support, local toast notifications, an environmental variables API, a restart API, and self-contained deployment. There are also new WinUI 3 capabilities like Mica, a third background material that first appeared in Windows 11.

Windows App SDK apps will run on Windows 10 version 1809 or newer, Microsoft says.

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Conversation 10 comments

  • SherlockHolmes

    Premium Member
    04 June, 2022 - 11:39 am

    <p>Windows App. Sounds like an App that includes everything thats wrong with Windows 11. </p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    04 June, 2022 - 11:43 pm

    <p>I admit great ignorance, but what well-known software uses Windows App SDK 1.0?</p>

    • oscar90

      05 June, 2022 - 1:35 am

      <p>None. But Microsoft must do everything they can to at least keep some developers interested in Windows.</p><p>The rest of the developer world has moved on to cloud and mobile.</p><p><br></p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        05 June, 2022 - 7:09 pm

        <p>Maybe.</p><p><br></p><p>I can understand and agree that MSFT wants developers to remain interested in Windows software development. OTOH, the more intelligent among those developers understand that there are NO LONGER big $$$ opportunities in desktop software development (Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, exotica) in consumer/leisure software markets other than games, and that large ISVs like Adobe,Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, Siemens, etc are 800-pound gorillas in business/workplace software markets. Screwing things up further for independent developers, FOSS has become pretty damn good in many niches. Other than those who’ve been paying for, say, SlickEdit for decades, who’d pay for SlickEdit rather than use Notepad++?</p><p><br></p><p>Which leads to the question whether MSFT believes many in-house developers would be using Windows App SDK. Maybe, but I doubt it. If they aren’t, then this would be a MSFT vanity project.</p>

  • bservies

    Premium Member
    05 June, 2022 - 12:27 pm

    <p>I haven’t programmed for Windows in over a decade, and wouldn’t even know where to begin in 2022. I mean, "local toast notifications"? Huh?</p><p><br></p><p>More importantly, they keep killing off their new frameworks. If I had to, I guess I’d go with something that has escaped the axe with all the changes in direction Microsoft has had.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • rob_segal

      Premium Member
      05 June, 2022 - 12:38 pm

      <p>It’s less complicated to get started building a macOS app than it is a Windows app. That is a problem. </p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      05 June, 2022 - 7:12 pm

      <p>I mean this seriously: who’d develop anything major with anything other than plain .Net or gravitate to long standing non-MSFT frameworks like Qt?</p>

      • Jogy

        Premium Member
        07 June, 2022 - 12:09 pm

        <p>What do you mean by "plain .NET"? You cannot develop desktop GUI application with what is just .NET, you need a GUI framework, like WPF or WinForms. </p>

  • javial

    Premium Member
    07 June, 2022 - 5:49 am

    <p>Its a mobile platform that only runs on desktop. </p>

  • swaschitz

    Premium Member
    08 June, 2022 - 2:55 pm

    <p>Thank you for sharing this news. This caused me to go to the Microsoft Blog Post for the release of this SDK which linked to a video (https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2022/06/03/whats-new-in-windows-app-sdk-1-1/ which linked to a Community Call https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNHGU6xmUzE&amp;list=PLI_J2v67C23ZqsolUDaHoFkF1GKvGrttB&amp;index=2&amp;t=1010s). Our Developers attempted to build an application using this after Build 2022, but have been running into that first problem in the video. Nice to know it is fixed in this most recent update. Finding information on that by Googling has been sparse. This was just the jumpstart we needed to get over that hump of the XAML UI missing library. Thank you for the continued great coverage during and post Build.</p>

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