Microsoft will remove built-in WinRT support in .NET 5.0

Microsoft yesterday announced the release of .NET 5.0 Preview 5 with new features and performance improvements. Along with this announcement, Microsoft revealed that it will remove the built-in WinRT support in .NET 5.0 starting with the next preview release. Microsoft first added built-in WinRT support in .NET Core 3.0, as part of adding support for Windows desktop client frameworks (Windows Forms and WPF). Microsoft is now removing WinRT support in .NET because of the following reasons.

• WinRT interop can be developed and improved separate from the .NET runtime.
• Makes WinRT interop symmetrical with interop systems provided for other operating systems, like iOS and Android.
• Can take advantage of many other .NET features (AOT, C# features, IL linking).
• Simplifies the .NET runtime codebase (removes 60k lines of code).

Instead of the built-in WinRT support, developers can now use the C#/WinRT tool chain from the Windows team. You can download .NET 5.0 Preview 5, for Windows, macOS, and Linux from the below links.

• Windows and macOS installers
• Binaries
• Docker images
• Snap installer

Source: Microsoft