Windows App SDK 2.5.1

[agniuks]

Windows App SDK 2.5.1 adds Windows Error Reporting support for self-contained .NET MSIX apps, introduces limited-access app content search APIs, and includes reliability fixes across WinUI 3, input, composition, deployment, and Windows AI.

What's new in WinAppSDK 2.5.1:

• Windows Error Reporting support. Self-contained .NET MSIX apps can now use the windows.diagnosticServiceModule package-manifest extension to declare diagnostic modules, allowing Windows Error Reporting to load them and collect actionable crash dumps.
• Limited-access AppContentSearch APIs. Apps with a limited-access feature token can use the new AppContentIndex APIs to index text and images, perform lexical queries, and use semantic matching on supported NPU-enabled devices. The APIs support semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation scenarios.

Bug fixes:

Bug Fix	Runtime Compatibility Change
Fixed a crash in windowed-popup input handling when a focus or pointer event was processed after the popup's island had been disposed.	PointerInputProcessor_ReleaseCaptureOnDisposedIsland
Fixed a crash in NavigationView when resizing the control could produce a negative pane MaxHeight.	NavigationView_UpdatePaneLayoutNegativeMaxHeight
Fixed an issue where the property set returned by ElementCompositionPreview.GetPointerPositionPropertySet stopped updating while a pointer was pressed.	PointerPositionPropertySet_UpdateWhilePressed
Fixed a crash in NavigationView when an expanded item's flyout was shown after the item had been collapsed or recycled.	NavigationViewItem_DeferredFlyoutShowStaleState
Fixed a fail-fast when a KeyboardAccelerator used an OEM or punctuation key and displayed the accelerator shortcut label.	KeyboardAccelerator_OemKeyNoFailFast
Fixed a fatal process exit during XAML shutdown in apps hosting WinUI 3 on more than one UI thread.	WindowsXamlManager_ActivationFactoryCacheResetRace
Fixed an issue where a CommandBar with no secondary commands could show an empty overflow button at fractional display scales such as 175%.	CommandBar_SpuriousOverflowButtonAtFractionalScale
Fixed an issue that prevented apps using the System Composition Engine from calling VisualInteractionSource.CreateFromIVisualElement.	CompositionEngine_SwitcherSeptemberFixes
Fixed effect graphs and SceneLighting rendering for apps using the System Composition Engine.	CompositionEngine_SwitcherSeptemberFixes
Fixed InputPointerSource.ActivationBehavior not honoring NoActivate when using the System Composition Engine.	CompositionEngine_SwitcherSeptemberFixes
Fixed CompositionEngine selection behavior for null inputs and no-op selections.	CompositionEngine_SwitcherSeptemberFixes
Fixed cursor customization for lifted input when using the System Composition Engine.	CompositionEngine_SwitcherSeptemberFixes
Fixed ICompositionObject queries on gradient stop collections when using the System Composition Engine.	N/A, operating system composition fix
Fixed ContentExternalOutputLink border and background behavior when using the System Composition Engine.	N/A, operating system composition fix
Fixed access to VisualReferenceController when using the System Composition Engine.	N/A, operating system composition fix
Fixed a registration issue that could occur when installing the Windows App SDK.	N/A, deployment registration fix
Fixed an issue where Video Super Resolution could fail during initialization or inference with the updated ONNX Runtime dependency.	N/A, dependency compatibility update

To see everything that's new and changed, see the full Windows App SDK 2.5.1 release notes.

Try it out

• Download the 2.5.1 NuGet package to use WinAppSDK 2.5 in your app.
• Download and update the WinUI Gallery to see the WinUI 3 updates firsthand.

Getting started

To get started using Windows App SDK to develop Windows apps, check out the following documentation:

• Install developer tools.
• Create a WinUI 3 app.
• Continue your development journey.

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This discussion was created from the release Windows App SDK 2.5.1.

[Balkoth]

Warning when building using <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.WinUI" Version="2.3.9" />:

warning NU1603: Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.WinUI 2.3.9 depends on Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.InteractiveExperiences (>= 2.1.8) but Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.InteractiveExperiences 2.1.8 was not found. Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.InteractiveExperiences 2.1.9 was resolved instead.