Accessibility Insights for Windows (external site)
Inspect UI Automation data and quickly find common accessibility problems in Windows applications.
Tools
A curated toolbox for every stage of a WinUI 3 app — build, design, debug, package, publish, test and monitor. Recommended cards are where we'd start.
Accessibility
Inspect (external site)
Inspect UI Automation properties, patterns and the accessibility hierarchy for individual UI elements. Use Accessibility Insights first.
AI & agents
Windows Developer Skills (external site)
Agent skills and development playbooks for building WinUI 3 and Windows App SDK applications with coding agents.
Development
WinApp CLI (external site)
Create, build, run, package, sign and inspect Windows apps from one command-line tool, including Windows API and WinUI sample search.
.NET CLI + WinUI templates (external site)
Create, build and run C# WinUI 3 projects entirely from the command line with dotnet new and the official WinUI templates.
Visual Studio (external site)
The full IDE for WinUI 3, with project templates, XAML Hot Reload, debugging, profiling and runtime XAML inspection.
Diagnostics
DebugView (external site)
Capture OutputDebugString and other Windows debug output without attaching a debugger, with a CLI designed for scripting.
Process Monitor (external site)
Trace file system, registry, process and thread activity to diagnose mysterious startup, deployment and permission failures.
ProcDump (external site)
Automatically capture process dumps on crashes, hangs, high CPU usage or other trigger conditions.
Process Explorer (external site)
Inspect running processes, DLLs, handles and process relationships when troubleshooting native dependencies or resource leaks.
WinDbg (external site)
Debug native or managed processes and analyze crash dump files when ordinary application debugging is not enough.
Distribution
Microsoft Store Developer CLI (external site)
Automate Store submissions, package uploads, metadata updates, flights and publishing from scripts or CI.
Windows App Certification Kit (external site)
Run the same technical validation checks the Microsoft Store uses against your app locally before you submit it.
WingetCreate (external site)
Create, update and submit Windows Package Manager manifests for distributing your application outside the Microsoft Store.
Monitoring
Application Insights (external site)
Collect application telemetry, exceptions, performance measurements and usage data from shipped .NET desktop apps.
OpenTelemetry (external site)
Instrument WinUI applications with vendor-neutral logs, traces and metrics that can be exported to multiple monitoring platforms.
Packaging
MSIX Packaging Tool (external site)
Convert existing MSI, EXE, App-V or script-based installers into MSIX packages, and inspect or edit existing packages.
Azure Artifact Signing (external site)
Cloud-managed code signing for production Windows apps without maintaining local signing certificates. Formerly Trusted Signing.
MakeAppx (external site)
Create, unpack and inspect AppX/MSIX packages from the Windows SDK command line.
SignTool (external site)
Digitally sign application binaries and MSIX packages using certificates from the Windows SDK.
Performance
Visual Studio Performance Profiler (external site)
Profile CPU usage, memory allocations and other runtime behavior directly alongside your source code.
Windows Performance Analyzer (external site)
Analyze ETW traces to diagnose startup, CPU, disk and UI responsiveness problems. Works with Windows Performance Recorder.
Windows Performance Recorder (external site)
Capture detailed ETW traces of application and system activity for deep performance investigations.
PerfView (external site)
Analyze .NET CPU usage, allocations, GC activity and ETW traces with a lightweight standalone profiler.
Reference apps
WinUI 3 Gallery (external site)
Interactive showcase of every WinUI 3 control, with XAML and C# source for each example.
Windows Community Toolkit Gallery (external site)
Try Community Toolkit controls, animations, helpers and extensions interactively before adding them to your project.
Runtime UI debugging
Live Property Explorer (external site)
Inspect and temporarily modify properties on running XAML elements to diagnose layout and styling problems.
Live Visual Tree (external site)
Inspect the live XAML element hierarchy of a running WinUI app and select elements directly in the UI.
XAML Hot Reload (external site)
Edit XAML while your app is running and see most UI changes without rebuilding or restarting.
XAML Live Preview (external site)
Display the running application inside a docked Visual Studio window while editing and inspecting its UI.
Testing
Appium Windows Driver (external site)
Automate end-to-end interaction with WinUI 3 desktop apps through Windows UI Automation and WebDriver. Successor to WinAppDriver.
Playwright (external site)
Automate and test web content hosted in WebView2 when a WinUI app embeds browser-based interfaces.
XAML & editor tools
XAML Studio (external site)
Rapidly prototype XAML layouts in a standalone playground and copy the resulting markup into your app. Built on UWP rather than WinUI 3 itself.
XAML Styler (external site)
Formats XAML consistently on save. Available for Visual Studio, VS Code and as a CLI.