Using controls from the toolkit

We explored a handful of the WCT controls in the sample app in the previous section. Now, it’s time to use them in a WinUI project. To demonstrate some of the controls in action, we are going to create a new WinUI 3 in Desktop project.

Note

At the time of writing, the WCT controls are not recommended for use in production apps and have some caveats. To learn more about the current limitations, you can read this Microsoft blog post: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/ifdef-windows/windows-community-toolkit-for-project-reunion-0-5/.

Creating the WinUI project

To start our WCT project, you will have to launch Visual Studio and follow these steps:

1. Create a new project. Then, on the Create a new project page, enter WinUI in Desktop in the search field.
2. Several project types will be displayed, but one of the top results will be Blank App, Packaged (WinUI 3 in Desktop). Select this project template for the language of your choice...