OSS Tanbou

Windows Forms

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build Windows desktop applications on .NET with controls, a visual designer, and wrappers over Windows UI APIs such as User32 and GDI+

OSS scale score 278.3OSS health 88Update pace 53 commits/30d
About these scores

OSS scale score is an unbounded metric that log-compresses and weights Stars, Watchers, Forks, and Contributors. Discovery score is the current OSS scale score minus the score at discovery. Update pace is commits in the last 30 days, growth momentum is the OSS scale score difference within the recent observation window, and OSS health is a 0–100 rating based on available recency, Community Health, and release data.

Stars
4,861
Primary language
C#
License
MIT
Repository last updated
Oct 3, 2026
On this page

Overview

Windows Forms (WinForms) is a .NET UI framework for Windows desktop applications. It wraps Windows UI libraries such as User32 and GDI+ in a .NET object model and combines controls, events, layout, and visual designer workflows for desktop application development.

Features and best fit

Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:

Key features

Use Windows UI APIs through .NET controls

WinForms wraps Windows UI libraries such as User32 and GDI+ so desktop interactions can be built through .NET controls and an event-driven programming model.

Sources: [1]

Build interfaces through the Visual Studio designer

The visual designer supports drag-and-drop control placement and property/event configuration for rapid desktop application development.

Sources: [1]

Migrate existing .NET Framework WinForms applications to modern .NET

The repository originated as a fork of .NET Framework 4.8 WinForms and has continued to diverge with modernization and documented breaking changes.

Sources: [1]

Best fit

Fits Windows line-of-business applications and existing WinForms estates

It remains useful for complex business workflows, existing WinForms codebases, third-party control ecosystems, and applications that depend on Windows-native integration.

Sources: [1]

Before adoption

Treat WinForms as a Windows-only framework

WinForms is not a cross-platform UI framework. Its runtime and designer workflows are Windows desktop technologies and do not directly target mobile, macOS, or Linux interfaces.

Sources: [1]

The designer implementation is not contained in this repository

The README distinguishes the .NET WinForms implementation from the separate designer implementation, so runtime-control issues and design-time issues should be triaged separately.

Sources: [1]

Track the application WindowsDesktop runtime separately from repository release tags

As of October 4, 2026, the latest stable GitHub release is v10.0.8. Applications should manage deployment against the actual .NET SDK and WindowsDesktop runtime patch level they use.

Sources: [3][1]

Official sources

  1. [1]Windows Forms v10.0.8 README(2026-10-04)
  2. [2]Windows Forms getting started(2026-10-04)
  3. [3]Windows Forms v10.0.8 release(2026-10-04)
  4. [4]Windows Forms MIT license(2026-10-04)
Supplemental curator note

WinForms is Windows-only. The repository's latest stable GitHub release is v10.0.8 from May 12, 2026, while development has continued afterward. For applications, align the .NET WindowsDesktop SDK/runtime patch level and do not treat the repository tag alone as the complete framework patch version.

Try it in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Check the .NET SDK on Windows

    WinForms is Windows-only. Continue on Windows with the intended .NET 10 SDK and WindowsDesktop tooling available.

    dotnet --info
  2. 2

    Create a minimal WinForms application

    Generate a desktop application from the official Windows Forms template.

    dotnet new winforms -o WinFormsDemo
  3. 3

    Validate the project with a Release build

    Restore and compile through the WindowsDesktop SDK without launching the GUI.

    dotnet build WinFormsDemo/WinFormsDemo.csproj -c Release
Check the official README

Growth

Growth trends · Last 30 days

4,861 Stars

Trend data is still being collected.

Development activity

Last 90 days · weekly

Commits (last 30 days)
53
Open PRs
124

Development activity is still being collected.

Built with

Categories and tags

Categories

Tags

GitHub data

GitHub dataView detailed GitHub data
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GitHub Topics

  • winforms
  • windows-forms
  • desktop
  • hacktoberfest
  • help-wanted
Stars
4,861
Forks
1,119
Watchers
306
Open issues
806
Contributors
282
Owner type
Organization
Primary language
C#
License
MIT
Repository last updated
Oct 3, 2026
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