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microsoft/WindowsAppSDK

The Windows App SDK empowers all Windows desktop apps with modern Windows UI, APIs, and platform features, including back-compat support, shipped via NuGet.

Owned by Microsoft

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microsoft/WindowsAppSDK has 4.5k+ stars and 450+ forks on GitHub, is written in C++, and was last pushed on Oct 16, 2026. Data as of . Signed-in members get hourly updates — create a free account.

Summary Information

Updated 2 hours ago
Type:FrameworkCategory(s):Cross-Platform & Desktop App FrameworksBackend FrameworksMobile & Desktop
Added to GitGenius on September 14th, 2026
Created on April 15th, 2020
Open Issues & Pull Requests: 403 (+0)
GitHub issues: Enabled
Number of forks: 481
Total Stargazers: 4,703 (+0)
Total Subscribers: 186 (+0)

Repository Insights (GitGenius)

Median issue/PR response: 21.5 hours
Mean response time: 48.5 days
90th percentile: 87.1 days
Tracked items: 1,052

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Maintainer activity

19 people did triage or write work on this repository in the last 12 months.

Counts unlabeled, assigned, unassigned, milestoned, demilestoned, locked, unlocked over the last 12 months. These are issue and pull request events that require triage or write permission. Commits and code review are not counted. labeled and renamed are excluded because GitHub issue forms record the issue author as the actor. Figures from October 11, 2026. This count is not comparable across projects: each project's automation decides which of these events a person emits. How this is counted.

How this project is maintained

About 16% of issues opened in the past year have never received a reply. 94% of open issues come from outside the core team, so the backlog reflects real-world use rather than internal planning. Work labelled "feature proposal" is answered fastest, typically in about 11 hours, while "area-MSIXBuildTools" waits about 2 days. 16% of tracked open issues have had no activity in three months. Only 51% of issues opened in the past year have been closed.

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Issue Activity (beta)

Open issues: 322
New in 7 days: 10
Closed in 7 days: 10
Avg open age: 721 days
Stale 30+ days: 187
Stale 90+ days: 171

Recent activity

Opened in 7 days: 8
Closed in 7 days: 10
Comments in 7 days: 14
Events in 7 days: 53

Top labels

  • feature proposal (238)
  • area-External (159)
  • bug (141)
  • needs-area-owner-attention (112)
  • area-DeveloperTools (102)
  • area-WinAppSDKDeployment (80)
  • area-Notifications (78)
  • area-WCR (58)

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Detailed Description

Windows App SDK is a set of libraries, frameworks, components, and tools that brings modern Windows platform features to desktop applications across multiple frameworks and Windows versions.

The tool addresses the fragmentation problem in Windows desktop development by providing a unified way to access modern Windows APIs and UI patterns without requiring applications to be rewritten. It combines Win32 native capabilities with contemporary API design, allowing developers to incrementally adopt modern features. The SDK is distributed via NuGet, making it straightforward to integrate into existing projects without mandating architectural changes like MSIX packaging, though MSIX adoption is encouraged for its reliability and security benefits.

Developers maintaining Win32, WPF, or WinForms applications should consider this SDK if they want to modernize their user interfaces and access new platform functionality while maintaining backward compatibility to Windows 10 build 17763. The tool is particularly suited for teams that cannot afford a complete application rewrite but need access to features like WinUI 3 for Fluent Design patterns, modern resource tooling, lifecycle helpers, and startup task integration. The wide platform support means a single SDK can serve applications built with different frameworks.

The project maintains an active roadmap and contribution guide, indicating ongoing development priorities and community engagement pathways. Development activity shows consistent attention to both new feature addition and backward compatibility guarantees across supported Windows versions. The project provides extensive documentation, sample applications, and related tooling repositories covering WinUI, C++/WinRT bindings, and MSIX packaging, suggesting a mature ecosystem designed to support developers at multiple stages of adoption.