.NET Core 3.0 Is Coming: Exciting Times Ahead

Microsoft has recently announced the teaser for .NET Core 3, and it was as exciting as watching a trailer for a big brand movie. 

.NET Core 3 will mainly focus on Windows desktop applications, specifically Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Framework (WPF), and UWP XAML. So if you are a desktop application lover, then an awesome time is on its way.

With .NET Core 3 onwards, we will be able to run Windows applications on .NET Core.

I have seen many StackOverflow questions asking about support for Windows applications in .NET Core, but now we have official news about it.

But it's important to note that .NET Core 3 is not only about Windows and desktop applications. The web and cloud features are exciting as well, but the Windows support is a cherry on the cake.

A Bigger Picture

As you can see above, web, data, AI/ML, and cross-platform are staying as they currently are in .NET Core, which means .NET Core isn't changing architecturally with this new version. But apart from that, we have Windows Desktop packages that are dedicated to the support of Windows applications on .NET Core, which will work on the Windows OS only.

Convert Existing Desktop Applications to .NET Core 3

It should be possible to convert your existing desktop application(s) to .NET Core 3 in what should be a straightforward process.

If we talk about the big picture, then the steps would be:

• Target your existing desktop application to .NET Core 3 and recompile.
• Update all the project files to target .NET Core 3.
• No need to target the dependencies to .NET Core 3, but there will be additional benefits if you do so.

MS Paint Application Is Already Being Tested on .NET Core 3

We all love the Paint application, and Paint is already running on .NET Core 3 in Microsoft's lab. The .Net team has converted Paint to .Net Core without even touching its code by just using the WPF binaries.

As per the .NET team, Paint has shown a faster startup along with other benefits while running on .NET Core

Changes in csproj for .NET Core 3

We know that .NET Core has adopted an SDK-based project structure. That has many advantages like:

• Neat and clean project files
• Less code than before
• Edit files without unloading
• Multi-target support
• PackageReference for referencing Nuget packages

You will be encouraged to change the project files to the newer SDK-based structure in order for your Windows desktop applications to work on .NET Core 3

How Desktop Apps Will Benefit From .NET Core 3

There are many benefits of .NET Core in desktop applications:

• Performance will be a key factor, as the performance of desktop applications should be increased with .NET Core 3.
• East to use or test a new version of .NET Core.
• Deployments are easier
• .NET Core CLI tools and SDK-style project support

The first version of .NET Core 3 will be available later this year, and the final version is expected to arrive in 2019.

Let us wait for this awesome release.