ModernWPF

Modern Fluent styles and WinUI-inspired controls for Windows Presentation Foundation.

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ModernWPF is an independent, community-maintained library that brings Fluent styling and modern controls to Windows Presentation Foundation applications. It runs directly on WPF; it is not WinUI and does not replace the WPF runtime.

Important

ModernWPF 1.x is the active preview line. The 0.9.x line is frozen and unsupported. No maintenance updates, security fixes, or new 0.9.x releases are planned.

Note

ModernWPF is the product and display name. The repository and CLR namespaces continue to use ModernWpf, and the NuGet package remains ModernWpfUI.

What ModernWPF provides

• Fluent styling for stock WPF controls, including Light, Dark, High Contrast, and compact-resource behavior.
• WPF ports of modern controls such as NavigationView, NumberBox, ContentDialog, InfoBar, CommandBarFlyout, and ItemsRepeater.
• Application, window, and element-level theme APIs with a consistent surface across every supported target.
• Modern window chrome, title-bar integration, layout helpers, and resource primitives for existing WPF applications.
• Source-backed compatibility audits and automated API, resource, theme, accessibility, package, and runtime tests.

Relationship to WPF and WinUI

ModernWPF follows both upstream UI projects, but each has a different role:

Area	Upstream authority	ModernWPF strategy
WPF runtime, XAML, layout, and input	dotnet/wpf	Build directly on WPF and preserve WPF behavior.
Stock control styling	Official WPF Fluent resources	Use the platform Fluent theme on .NET 10 and a compatible ModernWPF backport on older supported targets.
Additional modern controls	microsoft-ui-xaml	Port current WinUI control APIs and behavior where WPF has no equivalent, documenting necessary WPF adaptations.

ModernWPF is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

Project status

Line	Status	Policy
1.x	Active preview	Current development line. 1.0.0-preview.1 establishes the forward-compatible CLR API and public resource-key baseline.
0.9.x	Frozen and unsupported	Historical packages remain available, but no updates or security fixes are planned.

Source and binary compatibility with 0.9.x is not promised. Existing applications should follow the 0.9.x migration guide, which covers target framework changes, resource entries, renamed APIs, and the removal of the MahApps adapter from 1.x.

Supported targets

Target framework	Stock control theme	Intended use
net462	ModernWPF Fluent backport	Existing .NET Framework WPF applications.
net8.0-windows7.0	ModernWPF Fluent backport	Modern .NET WPF applications targeting .NET 8.
net10.0-windows7.0	Official PresentationFramework.Fluent theme	Modern .NET WPF applications targeting .NET 10.

Retired net45, netcoreapp3.0, and net5.0-windows package assets are not part of the 1.x line.

Getting started

Install an explicit 1.x version so NuGet does not select a frozen 0.9.x package:

dotnet add package ModernWpfUI --version 1.0.0-preview.1

If the requested preview is not yet listed on NuGet, use a validated workflow artifact or build the repository from source.

Add the recommended 1.x resources to App.xaml:

<Application
    ...
    xmlns:ui="http://schemas.modernwpf.com/2019">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
                <ui:ThemeResources />
                <ui:FluentControlsResources UseCompactResources="False" />
            </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Then opt a window into ModernWPF styling and use the controls from the same XAML namespace:

<Window
    ...
    xmlns:ui="http://schemas.modernwpf.com/2019"
    ui:WindowHelper.UseModernWindowStyle="True">
    <ui:StackPanelEx Margin="24" Spacing="12">
        <TextBlock
            Text="ModernWPF"
            Style="{StaticResource HeaderTextBlockStyle}" />
        <Button Content="Standard button" />
        <Button
            Content="Accent button"
            Style="{StaticResource AccentButtonStyle}" />
    </ui:StackPanelEx>
</Window>

FluentControlsResources uses official WPF Fluent resources for stock controls on net10.0-windows7.0 and the ModernWPF backport on the older supported targets. Applications that need a staged migration may temporarily retain ThemeResources plus XamlControlsResources; new applications should use the recommended entry above.

Gallery

ModernWpf.Gallery is this repository's interactive catalog and development sample. It demonstrates ModernWPF controls, WPF stock controls, themes, window chrome, navigation, dialogs, flyouts, and input behavior. It is a project sample, not Microsoft's official WPF or WinUI Gallery.

On Windows, install the SDK selected by global.json, then run:

dotnet restore .\ModernWpf.Gallery\ModernWpf.Gallery.csproj
dotnet run --project .\ModernWpf.Gallery\ModernWpf.Gallery.csproj `
    --configuration Debug `
    --framework net10.0-windows7.0 `
    --no-restore

Use net8.0-windows7.0 to exercise that supported target. Building net462 also requires the .NET Framework 4.6.2 Developer Pack. In Visual Studio, open ModernWpf.sln and select ModernWpf.Gallery as the startup project.

Documentation

Resource	Purpose
1.0.0-preview.1 release notes	Package changes, intentional 0.9 breaks, recommended resources, and preview limitations.
Migrating from 0.9.x	Step-by-step application migration guidance.
1.x public API contract	Forward compatibility policy for CLR APIs and public resource keys.

Build from source

Building requires Windows, the .NET SDK selected by global.json, and the Visual Studio .NET desktop development workload or equivalent build tools. The net462 target also requires the .NET Framework 4.6.2 Developer Pack.

Restore and build serially from the repository root:

dotnet restore ModernWpf.sln
dotnet build ModernWpf.sln --configuration Release --no-restore --maxcpucount:1

See release readiness for the complete test, package verification, and executable consumer-smoke commands. Solution builds and test builds should not run in parallel because WPF projects can contend for shared intermediate files.

Contributing and feedback

• Use Discussions for questions, design ideas, and broader proposals.
• Use Issues for reproducible bugs and focused feature requests. Include the target framework, Windows version, theme, and a minimal reproduction when relevant.
• Read the related source-audit document under docs before changing a WinUI-derived control or stock WPF template.
• Add focused regression coverage and run the affected test project before submitting a change.

License

ModernWPF is licensed under the MIT License. WPF and WinUI source references retain their respective upstream notices and licenses.