---
title: Desktop Guide for WPF and Windows Forms
description: Introduction to the Desktop Guide for WPF and Windows Forms for both .NET 5 and .NET Framework.
ms.prod: dotnet-desktop
ms.date: "08/30/2020"
---

# Desktop Guide for .NET, .NET Core, and .NET Framework

Welcome to the Desktop Guide. The Desktop Guide is a set of documentation for .NET-based Windows UI technologies including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Forms (WinForms). The Desktop Guide will cover both .NET 5 (and .NET Core 3.1) and later versions, along with .NET Framework.

Historically, the .NET Framework-based documentation for WPF and WinForms has been included in the [.NET Documentation](/dotnet). Windows Forms content has been migrated to this guide, while the migration of WPF content is ongoing.

## Windows Presentation Foundation

There are two implementations of WPF, each with it's own documentation:

01. The [.NET Framework 4 implementation](framework/wpf/index.md?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8&preserve-view=true) that's supported by Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2017.

    .NET Framework 4 is a Windows-only version of .NET and is considered a Windows Operating System component. This version of Windows Presentation Foundation is distributed with .NET Framework.

    The documentation for this version of WPF is available [here](framework/wpf/index.md?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8&preserve-view=true).

01. The open-source implementation hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/dotnet/wpf).

    This version runs on **.NET 5 and .NET Core 3.1**. The WPF XAML Visual Designer requires, at a minimum, [Visual Studio 2019 version 16.X](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/?utm_medium=microsoft&utm_source=docs.microsoft.com&utm_campaign=inline+link&utm_content=download+vs2019+desktopguide+winforms).

    Even though this version of .NET is cross-platform, WPF remains a Windows-only technology.

    The documentation for this version of WPF is in progress and is available [here](net/wpf/index.yml?view=netdesktop-5.0&preserve-view=true).

## Windows Forms

There are two implementations of Windows Forms, each with it's own documentation:

01. The [.NET Framework 4 implementation](framework/winforms/index.yml?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8&preserve-view=true) that's supported by Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2017.

    .NET Framework 4 is a Windows-only version of .NET and is considered a Windows Operating System component. This version of WinForms is distributed with .NET Framework.

    The documentation for this version of WinForms is available [here](framework/winforms/index.yml?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8&preserve-view=true).

01. The open-source implementation hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/dotnet/winforms).

    This version runs on **.NET 5 and .NET Core 3.1**. The Windows Forms Visual Designer requires, at a minimum, [Visual Studio 2019 version 16.X](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/?utm_medium=microsoft&utm_source=docs.microsoft.com&utm_campaign=inline+link&utm_content=download+vs2019+desktopguide+winforms).

    Even though this version of .NET is cross-platform, WinForms remains a Windows-only technology.

    The documentation for this version of WinForms is in progress and not yet available.