title	author	description	monikerRange	ms.author	ms.custom	ms.date	uid
Build a Windows Forms Blazor app	guardrex	Build a Windows Forms Blazor app step-by-step.	>= aspnetcore-6.0	riande	mvc	11/15/2022	blazor/hybrid/tutorials/windows-forms

Build a Windows Forms Blazor app

This tutorial shows you how to build and run a Windows Forms Blazor app. You learn how to:

[!div class="checklist"]

Create a Windows Forms Blazor app project

Run the app on Windows

Prerequisites

Supported platforms (Windows Forms documentation)
Visual Studio 2022 with the .NET desktop development workload

Visual Studio workload

If the .NET desktop development workload isn't installed, use the Visual Studio installer to install the workload. For more information, see Modify Visual Studio workloads, components, and language packs.

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/install-workload.png" alt-text="Visual Studio installer .NET desktop development workload selection.":::

Create a Windows Forms Blazor project

Launch Visual Studio. In the Start Window, select Create a new project:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/new-solution.png" alt-text="Create a new solution in Visual Studio.":::

In the Create a new project dialog, filter the Project type dropdown to Desktop. Select the C# project template for Windows Forms App and select the Next button:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/create-project.png" alt-text="Create a new project in Visual Studio.":::

In the Configure your new project dialog:

Set the Project name to :::no-loc text="WinFormsBlazor":::.
Choose a suitable location for the project.
Select the Next button.

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/configure-project.png" alt-text="Configure the project.":::

In the Additional information dialog, select the framework version with the Framework dropdown list. Select the Create button:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/additional-information.png" alt-text="The Additional Information dialog.":::

Use NuGet Package Manager to install the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms NuGet package:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/nuget-package-manager.png" alt-text="Use Nuget Package Manager in Visual Studio to install the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms NuGet package.":::

In Solution Explorer, right-click the project's name, :::no-loc text="WinFormsBlazor":::, and select Edit Project File to open the project file (WinFormsBlazor.csproj).

At the top of the project file, change the SDK to Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor">

Save the changes to the project file (WinFormsBlazor.csproj).

Add an _Imports.razor file to the root of the project with an @using directive for xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web?displayProperty=fullName.

_Imports.razor:

@using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web

Save the _Imports.razor file.

Add a wwwroot folder to the project.

Add an index.html file to the wwwroot folder with the following markup.

wwwroot/index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <title>WinFormsBlazor</title>
    <base href="/" />
    <link href="css/app.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="WinFormsBlazor.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>

<body>

    <div id="app">Loading...</div>

    <div id="blazor-error-ui">
        An unhandled error has occurred.
        <a href="" class="reload">Reload</a>
        <a class="dismiss">🗙</a>
    </div>

    <script src="_framework/blazor.webview.js"></script>

</body>

</html>

Inside the wwwroot folder, create a css folder to hold stylesheets.

Add an app.css stylesheet to the wwwroot/css folder with the following content.

wwwroot/css/app.css:

html, body {
    font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

h1:focus {
    outline: none;
}

a, .btn-link {
    color: #0071c1;
}

.btn-primary {
    color: #fff;
    background-color: #1b6ec2;
    border-color: #1861ac;
}

.valid.modified:not([type=checkbox]) {
    outline: 1px solid #26b050;
}

.invalid {
    outline: 1px solid red;
}

.validation-message {
    color: red;
}

#blazor-error-ui {
    background: lightyellow;
    bottom: 0;
    box-shadow: 0 -1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
    display: none;
    left: 0;
    padding: 0.6rem 1.25rem 0.7rem 1.25rem;
    position: fixed;
    width: 100%;
    z-index: 1000;
}

    #blazor-error-ui .dismiss {
        cursor: pointer;
        position: absolute;
        right: 0.75rem;
        top: 0.5rem;
    }

Add the following Counter component to the root of the project, which is the default Counter component found in Blazor project templates.

Counter.razor:

<h1>Counter</h1>

<p>Current count: @currentCount</p>

<button class="btn btn-primary" @onclick="IncrementCount">Click me</button>

@code {
    private int currentCount = 0;

    private void IncrementCount()
    {
        currentCount++;
    }
}

Save the Counter component (Counter.razor).

In Solution Explorer, double-click on the Form1.cs file to open the designer:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/solution-explorer-1.png" alt-text="The Form1.cs file in Solution Explorer.":::

Open the Toolbox by either selecting the Toolbox button along the left edge of the Visual Studio window or selecting the View > Toolbox menu command.

Locate the BlazorWebView control under Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms. Drag the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms.BlazorWebView from the Toolbox into the Form1 designer. Be careful not to accidentally drag a WebView2 control into the form.

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/toolbox.png" alt-text="BlazorWebView in the Toolbox.":::

Visual Studio shows the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms.BlazorWebView control in the form designer as WebView2 and automatically names the control blazorWebView1:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/form1.png" alt-text="BlazorWebView in the Form1 designer.":::

In Form1, select the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms.BlazorWebView (WebView2) with a single click.

In the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms.BlazorWebView's Properties, confirm that the control is named blazorWebView1. If the name isn't blazorWebView1, the wrong control was dragged from the Toolbox. Delete the WebView2 control in Form1 and drag the BlazorWebView control into the form.

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/control-properties.png" alt-text="The BlazorWebView is automatically named 'blazorWebView1' by Visual Studio.":::

In the control's properties, change the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms.BlazorWebView's Dock value to Fill:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/properties.png" alt-text="BlazorWebView properties with Dock set to Fill.":::

In the Form1 designer, right-click Form1 and select View Code.

Add namespaces for xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms?displayProperty=fullName and xref:Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection?displayProperty=fullName to the top of the Form1.cs file:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

Inside the Form1 constructor, after the InitializeComponent method call, add the following code:

var services = new ServiceCollection();
services.AddWindowsFormsBlazorWebView();
blazorWebView1.HostPage = "wwwroot\\index.html";
blazorWebView1.Services = services.BuildServiceProvider();
blazorWebView1.RootComponents.Add<Counter>("#app");

Note

The InitializeComponent method is generated by a source generator at app build time and added to the compilation object for the calling class.

The final, complete C# code of Form1.cs:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebView.WindowsForms;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

namespace WinFormsBlazor
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            var services = new ServiceCollection();
            services.AddWindowsFormsBlazorWebView();
            blazorWebView1.HostPage = "wwwroot\\index.html";
            blazorWebView1.Services = services.BuildServiceProvider();
            blazorWebView1.RootComponents.Add<Counter>("#app");
        }
    }
}

Run the app

Select the start button in the Visual Studio toolbar:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/start-button.png" alt-text="Start button of the Visual Studio toolbar.":::

The app running on Windows:

:::image type="content" source="windows-forms/_static/running-app.png" alt-text="The app running on Windows.":::

Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned how to:

[!div class="checklist"]

Create a Windows Forms Blazor app project

Run the app on Windows

Learn more about Blazor Hybrid apps:

[!div class="nextstepaction"] xref:blazor/hybrid/index

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windows-forms.md

Build a Windows Forms Blazor app

Prerequisites

Visual Studio workload

Create a Windows Forms Blazor project

Run the app

Next steps

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windows-forms.md

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windows-forms.md

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Build a Windows Forms Blazor app

Prerequisites

Visual Studio workload

Create a Windows Forms Blazor project

Run the app

Next steps