Editing Windows Forms (section)

{{distinguish|Microsoft Forms}}
{{update|date=January 2023}}
{{short description|Graphical user interface software library}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Windows Forms (WinForms)
| screenshot = Screenshot of WinForms Designer as seen in Visual Studio 2019.png
| logo = WinForms Logo.png
| screenshot alt = Screenshot of Windows Forms designer as seen in [[Visual Studio 2019]].
| author = [[.NET Framework|.NET]]: [[Microsoft]],<br />[[Mono Framework|Mono]]: [[Ximian]]/[[Novell]]
| other_names = WinForms
| developer = [[.NET Foundation]]
| released = {{Start date and age|2002|02|13}}
| latest release version = v8.0.0
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2023|11|14}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/dotnet/winforms/releases/tag/v8.0.0|title=v8.0.0|date=2023-11-14|website=github.com|access-date=2023-11-21}}</ref>
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date = 
| programming language = [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]]
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]]
| platform = [[.NET Framework]], [[.NET]], [[Mono (software)|Mono]]
| genre = [[Software framework]], [[widget toolkit]]
| license = [[MIT License]]
| website = {{URL|https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/winforms/}}
}}
'''Windows Forms''', also known as '''WinForms''', is a free, open-source graphical user interface (GUI) class library for building Windows desktop applications, included as a part of [[Microsoft]] [[.NET]], [[.NET Framework]] or [[Mono (software)|Mono]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Windows Forms Programming in C#|last=Sells|first=Chris|publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional|edition=1st|date=September 6, 2003|page=xxxviiii}}</ref> providing a platform to write client applications for desktop, laptop, and tablet PCs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff647339.aspx|title=Design and Implementation Guidelines for Web Clients by Microsoft Pattern and Practices|publisher=Microsoft|date=November 2003}}</ref> While it is seen as a replacement for the earlier and more complex [[C++]] based [[Microsoft Foundation Class Library]], it does not offer a comparable paradigm<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Appendix B|title=Moving from MFC, Windows Forms 2.0 Programming|last1=Sells|first1=Chris|last2=Weinhardt|first2=Michael|publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional|edition=2nd|date=May 16, 2006}}</ref> and only acts as a platform for the user interface tier in a [[Multitier architecture|multi-tier]] solution.<ref>{{cite web|title=Introduction to Windows Forms|type=Visual Studio 2003 documentation|publisher=Microsoft 2003|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983655(v=vs.71).aspx}}</ref>

At the [[Microsoft Connect]] event on December 4, 2018, [[Microsoft]] announced releasing Windows Forms as an open source project on [[GitHub]]. It is released under the [[MIT License]]. With this release, Windows Forms has become available for projects targeting the [[.NET Core]] framework. However, the framework is still available only on the Windows platform, and [[Mono Framework|Mono's]] incomplete implementation of Windows Forms remains the only cross-platform implementation.<ref name="OpenSourcingGuiMartin">{{cite web |url=https://www.infoq.com/news/2018/12/msft-open-source-wpf-winforms | title=Microsoft Open Sources WPF, WinForms, and WinUI | last=Martin  | first=Jeff | work=InfoQ | date=4 December 2018|access-date=2018-12-06 }}</ref><ref name="OpenSourcingGuiHanselman">{{cite web |url=https://www.hanselman.com/blog/AnnouncingWPFWinFormsAndWinUIAreGoingOpenSource.aspx | title=Announcing WPF, WinForms, and WinUI are going Open Source | last=Hanselman | first=Scott | date=4 December 2018|access-date=2018-12-06 }}</ref>