WinUI 3 compared to other Windows development frameworks
Where does WinUI fit into the overall landscape of Microsoft’s Windows development frameworks? Let’s draw some comparisons to help answer that question, starting with those that are most like WinUI.
WinUI versus UWP
This is a tricky comparison because WinUI apps today share the same XAML schema as UWP apps. In fact, WinUI 2.x are controls for UWP applications. They share the same XAML schema, base visuals, and underlying Windows APIs. Any UWP app that has the same minimum and target versions of Windows specified can add the WinUI 2.x libraries to leverage the new and updated features. However, UWP will not receive any feature updates beyond WinUI 2.8. Only security and bug-fix updates will be released as 2.8x minor releases.
A key difference between apps that use WinUI versus traditional UWP apps is access to new and updated controls and other visual elements without requiring an updated Windows SDK. This...
