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System Requirements

Taiizor edited this page Jun 19, 2026 · 3 revisions

System Requirements

Sucrose is a Windows-only WPF desktop application. It targets .NET 10 and ships its own trimmed private .NET runtime, so you do not need a system-wide .NET install to run it. The only prerequisite for the installer itself is .NET Framework 4.8, and a couple of optional components (Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime and the Visual C++ redistributable) are needed only by the web/video render engines. This page lists every requirement and which component each part of Sucrose depends on. To install, see Installation; for the optional engine components, see Runtime Dependencies.

Table of contents


Operating system

  • Windows only. Sucrose is a WPF application and renders wallpapers into the Windows desktop window hierarchy (WorkerW / Progman).
  • Per-monitor DPI aware. The application manifest declares DPI awareness PerMonitorV2, PerMonitor, so the UI and wallpapers scale correctly across mixed-DPI multi-monitor setups.
  • No administrator rights. The manifest requests level="asInvoker" — Sucrose installs and runs entirely in your user profile without elevation.
  • The MpvPlayer render engine requires Windows 10 version 1607 or later.

Supported architectures

Sucrose is published for three Windows architectures (runtime identifiers in parentheses):

Architecture Runtime identifier
x64 win-x64
x86 win-x86
ARM64 win-arm64

Pick the build that matches your Windows installation. See Choosing an architecture for guidance.


Application runtime (.NET 10)

  • The app targets .NET 10.0-windows.
  • You do not need to install .NET 10 yourself. Sucrose ships a trimmed private .NET runtime in a folder named Sucrose.Runtime next to the binaries, and every Sucrose process is configured to probe that folder (via DOTNET_ROOT, DOTNET_MULTILEVEL_LOOKUP=0, and DOTNET_ROLL_FORWARD=LatestMajor). The publish pipeline installs the .NET SDK 10.0.109 (which provides the .NET runtime 10.0.9) into this folder.
  • Net effect: a clean Windows install with no .NET present can still run Sucrose out of the box.

Building from source is different — that requires a .NET 11 preview SDK. See Building From Source.


Installer runtime (.NET Framework 4.8)

The Bundle installer (Sucrose.Bundle) is itself built on .NET Framework 4.8 (separate from the .NET 10 app it installs). Every released installer is named Sucrose_Bundle_.NET_Framework_4.8_<arch>_<version>.exe.

  • Windows 10/11 already include .NET Framework 4.8, so this is usually already present.
  • The Chocolatey package declares it as an explicit dependency: dotnetfx >= 4.8.0.20220524 (Chocolatey installs it automatically if missing). The other package managers do not declare it.
  • Download manually if needed: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework/net48

Engine-specific components

These are required only when you use the corresponding wallpaper types / render engines:

Component Needed by Notes
Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime Web / Url / YouTube wallpapers on the WebView engine The WebView engine can auto-download the runtime if it is missing. Reference: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=2124703.
Visual C++ redistributable CefSharp engine (Chromium Embedded) Reference: https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.{0}.exe (architecture-specific). If WPF UI initialization fails, Sucrose's native error fallback hints at a missing VC++ redistributable or .NET Desktop runtime.
libmpv (bundled) MpvPlayer engine Shipped with the app (libmpv-{arch}.dll); no separate download. Requires Windows 10 1607+.
libVLC (bundled) VlcPlayer engine Shipped with the app (VideoLAN.LibVLC.Windows, one arch per build); no separate download and no minimum-Windows-version requirement.

See Runtime Dependencies and the per-engine pages (Engine-WebView, Engine-CefSharp, Engine-MpvPlayer, Engine-VlcPlayer) for details.


Summary table

Requirement Required by Bundled?
Windows (DPI-aware, asInvoker) Everything
x64 / x86 / ARM64 build Everything
.NET 10 runtime The app Yes (Sucrose.Runtime)
.NET Framework 4.8 The installer (Sucrose.Bundle) No (in Windows 10/11)
WebView2 runtime WebView engine (Web/Url/YouTube) No (auto-download)
VC++ redistributable CefSharp engine No
libmpv MpvPlayer engine; Win10 1607+ Yes
libVLC VlcPlayer engine Yes

See also

Home

Getting Started

Wallpaper Types

Using Sucrose

Settings Reference

Creating Wallpapers

Engine Reference

Automation & Command Line

Architecture & Internals

Data, Files & Diagnostics

Building & Contributing

Help & Support

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