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What’s New In Windows Forms Design At Runtime In .NET 5.0?

What are Windows Forms?

Windows Forms are a .NET Framework bundled with Graphical User Interface class library. Its main goal is to provide an easy interface to develop applications for desktop, PCs. It is also called WinForms. The Applications which is developed using Windows Forms or WinForms are called Windows Forms Applications. This Application runs on desktop computers. Windows Forms is only used to develop Windows Forms Applications. It is not used for developing Web Applications. It contains so many controls like labels, tooltip, list box, etc.

Event-driven architecture

It provides a reach and a more expansive client library which provides an interface for access to native Windows graphical interface elements and also accesses graphics from managed code. It is similar to Windows client and hence it is built with event-driven architecture. Windows Forms Applications waits for input from the user and after it is executed.

Collection of classes and methods

Windows Forms look like a Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library. It provides a collection of many C++ classes and many other methods to develop a Desktop Application and Windows Application. Windows Form doesn’t provide a default application framework. Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) is provided as the default application framework.

In short windows, forms is a Graphical User Interface class library that is built using C++. This library is used to develop desktop applications.

Above is a brief introduction to Windows forms. To know about Windows forms at run time, it is required to know what is Windows forms. You can build a Windows Forms application in .Net 5 just as you build a normal web application in a visual studio, and using this you can make a more dynamic Windows application in a visual studio.

What is Window Forms Design at Run time? 

Windows Form Design at run time will allow users to style Form at runtime, Save the form, Open and reuse the current form. In WinForms Design at Runtime, users can add controls at runtime from the Toolbar, design their own Form, write their code for controls to perform some action.

For instance, the user can add a DataGridView and a button control at runtime. In Code Part Text Box, user can add their code to bind data from the database to the selected data grid, everything was being at run time.

The Windows forms Design at Runtime is beneficial for Project Manager/System Analyst where they will design a new project and give it to the Developer/ Programmer and Software Engineers.

It will be useful for the project demo to clients. In some cases, clients need to spot Form design and sample output of form looks. In this case, this application is very useful to design their form and show for a demo within less time. Educate and train new programmers or Developers, Trainees or teachers can explain basic Windows form controls, the Property of every control, and the way to write down simple code to the new programmers.

The Windows Form Design at Run-Time software application is developed to set style your own Form using panel controls to add something like Text Box, List view, Button, Label, Checkbox, ListView, and so many other things. In this application, the user can add new background color and also set an image of the Form and the user is also able to change it. The user also adds items to ComboBox, Tree-view, ListView, Text-box using the Property Window. The user also enters their own C# code at text-box and button for running their own code at run time. As an example, add one button and add your C# code in the text-box when you click on the button at the run time button click, your code event gets execute and run your c# code.

Here are some of the striking features you can find with Windows Forms in .Net 5.

Removed Status Bar Controls 

In .NET Framework 2 the humble Status bar is replaced with control, having the same Status Strip. Its purpose and intents are also the same as the Status bar. Probably both have high maintenance costs and wouldn’t be visible for a long time in the designer toolbox. Hence it was completely removed in .Net 5.

New TaskDialog Control 

A task dialog control is a dialog box that is used to display information and receive simple input from the user but has more features than a message box. Like a message box, it is formatted by the operating system according to the parameters you set.

FileDialog Enhancement 

FileDialog has a new API: ClientGuid and FileDialog. The FileDialog is enabled as a calling application to connect a GUID with a dialog persevered state. Its state covers the factors like the last visited folder, size of the dialog, position of the dialog. Normally this state is insisted based on the name of the executable file. By clearing a GUID, the application can have some different persevered states for some different versions of dialog with the same application. For Example, Open dialog and Import dialog.

Improved Error Handling 

Windows Forms Design at Runtime with .NET 5 has some improvement for Error Handling. It fixes some errors with this .NET 5. In the old .NET platform, there were limited validations, which means if you are passing invalid arguments then it is throwing a NullReferenceException or simply behave in an uncertain way. With the.NET5 the proper argument exception, ArgumentNullException or ArgumentOutofRangeException will be thrown. If any required property is null, then it throws an InvalidOperationException exception instead of an argument exception.

Conclusion: 

After going through this blog, you can understand what is Windows Forms and its use, which types of applications can be created using Windows Forms. This blog also contains about Windows Forms Design at Run time and also listed some new features of Windows Forms Design at Run time with .NET 5. Microsoft provides improved error handling and file dialog. It had also eliminated some unnecessary features. With .NET 5 using Windows forms design at the runtime, the user can customize their form personally and view it.


I am working as a Digital Marketing Manager in a reputed Windows Application Development Company. Being a technical writing enthusiast and a goal-oriented individual with honed communication skills, I have served in the Information technology, Services, and Product industry. Having a high-energy level, I absolutely love what I do and I’m passionate about being better every day.