Winforms windows forms

With Windows Forms, you can create powerful Windows-based applications. The following topics describe in-depth how to harness the power of Windows Forms to display data, handle user input, and deploy your applications easily and with enhanced security.

Creating a New Windows Form Contains links to topics that describe basic concepts for creating Windows Forms applications. Changing the Appearance of Windows Forms Contains links to topics that show how to change the appearance of Windows Forms applications.

Windows Forms Controls Contains links to topics that describe and show how to use Windows Forms controls and components. User Input in Windows Forms Contains links to topics that describe and show how to handle input from the user in Windows Forms applications. Dialog Boxes in Windows Forms Contains links to topics that describe the different dialog boxes for use in Windows Forms. You can create data-bound controls easily by using the Data Sources window in Visual Studio.

The window displays data sources such as databases, web services, and objects in your project. You can create data-bound controls by dragging items from this window onto forms in your project. You can also data-bind existing controls to data by dragging objects from the Data Sources window onto existing controls. Another type of data binding you can manage in Windows Forms is settings. Most apps must retain some information about their run-time state, such as the last-known size of forms, and retain user preference data, such as default locations for saved files.

The Application Settings feature addresses these requirements by providing an easy way to store both types of settings on the client computer. After you define these settings by using either Visual Studio or a code editor, the settings are persisted as XML and automatically read back into memory at run time.

After you have written your app, you must send the app to your users so that they can install and run it on their own client computers. When you use the ClickOnce technology, you can deploy your apps from within Visual Studio by using just a few clicks, and provide your users with a URL pointing to your app on the web. ClickOnce manages all the elements and dependencies in your app, and ensures that the app is correctly installed on the client computer. ClickOnce apps can be configured to run only when the user is connected to the network, or to run both online and offline.

When you specify that an app should support offline operation, ClickOnce adds a link to your app in the user's Start menu. The user can then open the app without using the URL. When you update your app, you publish a new deployment manifest and a new copy of your app to your web server. ClickOnce will detect that there is an update available and upgrade the user's installation.

No custom programming is required to update old apps. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode.

Desktop Guide Windows Forms. Please rate your experience Yes No. Any additional feedback? Important The Desktop Guide documentation for. NET Framework template for C. If you prefer, you can refine your search to quickly get to the template you want. For example, enter or type Windows Forms App in the search box. Next, choose C from the Language list, and then choose Windows from the Platform list.

If you do not see the Windows Forms App. NET Framework template, you can install it from the Create a new project window. In the Not finding what you're looking for? Next, in the Visual Studio Installer, choose the. NET desktop development workload. After that, choose the Modify button in the Visual Studio Installer. You might be prompted to save your work; if so, do so.

Next, choose Continue to install the workload. Then, return to step 2 in this " Create a project " procedure. In the Configure your new project window, type or enter HelloWorld in the Project name box. Then, choose Create. On the Create a new project window, select the Windows Forms App. Next, select C from the Language list, and then select Windows from the Platform list. Next, in the Visual Studio Installer, select the. After that, select the Modify button in the Visual Studio Installer.

Next, select Continue to install the workload. Then, select Create. After you select your C project template and name your file, Visual Studio opens a form for you. A form is a Windows user interface. We'll create a "Hello World" application by adding controls to the form, and then we'll run the app. If you don't see the Toolbox fly-out option, you can open it from the menu bar. In the Properties window, locate Text , change the name from button1 to Click this , and then press Enter.

If you don't see the Properties window, you can open it from the menu bar. Or, press F4.