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How to use Windows Forms .NET Framework designer for .NET applications

The OOP designer is a port of the original .NET Framework Windows Forms designer that was run inside the Visual Studio's process. And whilst the team is aiming for parity there are still functional gaps between the original designer and the new OOP designer. With that it is possible that you may find yourself in a situtation where the OOP designer is not working as expected, and you'd want to use the .NET Framework designer to carry you on.

This guide will walk you through the steps that enable a substantial use of the .NET Framework designer to design Windows Forms .NET applications. Please note, that due to the changes in the default font and new APIs in Windows Forms .NET, the .NET Framework designer won't be able to provide 100% parity.

1. Create Windows Forms .NET app

Create a new Windows Forms application targeting .NET from Visual Studio or your favorite command line interface.

Create in Visual Studio

VS2022:

  1. File > Add > New Project... > Windows Forms App (.NET Core), choose C# or Visual Basic
  2. Specify project name, e.g. SimpleWinForms

Create from command line

Open your favorite console, create a new folder for your application:

md SimpleWinForms
cd SimpleWinForms
dotnet new winforms -n SimpleWinForms
dotnet new sln
dotnet sln add SimpleWinForms

☝️ TIP: You can have the folder name different from the project's name. Use the option -n (or -name) for that when using dotnet new.

☝️ TIP: For Visual Basic projects use the option -lang vb when using dotnet new.

After creating the project, you can run the application:

dotnet run --project SimpleWinForms\SimpleWinForms.csproj

2. Enable .NET Framework designer support

There are few options available to help you to design UI for your .NET Core project.

Option 1: multi-target your app

  1. Open SimpleWinForms.sln

  2. Open the SimpleWinForms project file by double clicking on it in Solution Explorer. Change the TargetFramework property from:

    -    <TargetFramework>net6.0-windows</TargetFramework>
+    <TargetFrameworks>net472;net6.0-windows</TargetFrameworks>

  3. Add for any and every form file you have in this ItemGroup:

     <ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net472'">
   <Compile Update="Form1.cs">
     <SubType>Form</SubType>
   </Compile>
   <Compile Update="Form1.Designer.cs">
     <DependentUpon>Form1.cs</DependentUpon>
   </Compile>
 </ItemGroup>

    After doing these steps this is what you should end up with:

    edit-project-file

Option 2: Shadow .NET Frameowk project

  1. Open SimpleWinForms.sln

  2. Add a new Windows Forms App (.NET Framework) project (VS2017: Visual C# > Windows Desktop / VS2019+: C# : Windows : Desktop) to the solution (File > Add > New Project...)

    add-netfx-project

  3. Name the new .NET Framework project as the .NET project, but add ".Designer" to it (e.g. SimpleWinForms.Designer)

  4. Go to the .NET Framework project properties and set the default namespace to the .NET project's namespace

    edit-namespace

  5. Delete the existing Form files in both projects

  6. Add a new Windows Form in the .NET Framework project's context menu Add > Windows Form...

    add-new-form

  7. In the section list, click on Windows Forms, and chose Windows Form from the installed templates

    add-new-form-dialog

  8. Give the name and click [Add].

    ❗ IMPORTANT: You need to trigger a form change event for the Designer to create a resx file. You can do it by resizing the form for a couple of pixels or changing the form's Text property. Don't forget to save.

  9. Now we move the form to the .NET project.
    In the Solution Explorer click on the form and press CTRL+X to cut it; and then paste it in to the .NET project (CTRL+V). Check that the main form file, the .designer file and the resource file for the form are all present.

  10. Then we link the form back into the .NET Framework project back.
    Remember: We can only use the .NET Framework designer, but we want to have only one set of files. So the form files, of course, belong to the .NET project but we want to edit them in the context of the .NET Framework project (thus using the .NET Framework designer).

    • To do this open the context menu on the .NET Framework project in the Solution Explorer, and pick Add > Existing Item

    • In the File Open Dialog, navigate to the .NET project, select the Form.cs, Form.Designer.cs and Form.resx files and choose Add as Link option.

    add-as-link

  11. Compile the solution to see if the file references were set up correctly

  12. As the last but important step, we need to re-nest the linked form files.
    If you installed the File Nesting Visual Studio Extension then that is done easily: Select both the Form.Designer.cs and Form.resx file, and from the context menu click File Nesting > Nest Items. In the dialog, pick the main form file (Form.cs), and click OK.

Now, whenever you need to use the Designer on one of the .NET Form or UserControl files, simply open the linked files in the .NET Framework project with the Windows Forms Designer.

More information

If you are porting an existing .NET Framework application to .NET you may wish to read the following blog posts: