Experimental channel release notes for the Windows App SDK 0.8

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Important

The experimental channel is not supported for use in production environments, and apps that use the experimental releases cannot be published to the Microsoft Store.

The experimental channel provides releases of the Windows App SDK that include experimental channel features that are in early stages of development. APIs for experimental features have the Experimental attribute. If you call an experimental API in your code, you will receive a build-time warning. All APIs in the experimental channel might have breaking changes in future releases, but experimental APIs are especially subject to change. Experimental features may be removed from the next release, or may never be released.

Important links:

Latest experimental channel release:

Latest stable channel release:

Version 0.8 Preview (0.8.0-preview)

This release supports all experimental channel features.

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The following sections describe new and updated features, limitations, and known issues for this release.

WinUI 3

This release introduces critical bug fixes (including those fixed in 0.5 servicing releases) and other changes for WinUI. For a complete list, see the Overview and release notes: WinUI 3 - Project Reunion 0.8 Preview (May 2021).

App lifecycle (experimental feature)

This release introduces new experimental features related to managing the app lifecycle of your app.

  • All apps (packaged and unpackaged) can use GetActivatedEventArgs (although packaged apps can already use the implementation of this in the platform).
  • Only unpackaged apps can use the RegisterForXXXActivation functions.
  • Packaged desktop apps can use app lifecycle instancing.

For more information, see App instancing with the app lifecycle API and Rich activation with the app lifecycle API.

Deployment for unpackaged apps (experimental feature)

This release introduces new experimental deployment features for unpackaged apps. Unpackaged apps can now dynamically take a dependency on the Windows App SDK runtime packages so you can continue using your existing MSI or setup program for app deployment. This is available through the following features:

  • Standalone installer for Windows App SDK.
  • MSIX package bundle that includes dynamic dependencies functionality.

For more info, see Windows App SDK deployment guide for framework-dependent apps packaged with external location or unpackaged.

DWriteCore

This release adds the following features:

  • Text decorations (underline and strikethrough in the text layout API)
  • Vertical text layout
  • Font face kerning API
  • Experimental support for unpackaged apps

For more information, see DirectWrite to DWriteCore migration.

MRT Core

This release adds the following features:

  • The build action for resources is now automatically set, reducing the need for manual project configuration.
  • Experimental support for unpackaged apps.

For more information, see Manage resources with MRT Core.

Limitations and known issues

  • No support for Any CPU build configuration: The Windows App SDK is written in native code and thus does not support Any CPU build configurations. The WinUI 3 templates in Visual Studio only allow architecture-specific builds. When adding the Windows App SDK to an existing .NET application or component that supports Any CPU, you must specify the desired architecture: x86, x64 or arm64.
  • .NET apps must target build 18362 or later: Your TFM must be set to net6.0-windows10.0.18362 or later, and your packaging project's <TargetPlatformVersion> must be set to 18362 or later. For more info, see the known issue on GitHub.

Samples

The Windows App SDK samples do not work with this release.