Built-in support for WinRT is removed from .NET 5.0 (original) (raw)
Built-in support for WinRT is removed from .NET 5.0
Built-in support for consumption of WinRT APIs in .NET Core is being removed. This possibility has been announced in dotnet/runtime#35318.
The removal was done in dotnet/runtime#36715.
Version introduced
.NET 5.0
Old behavior
Consumption of WinMDs by CoreCLR was possible. This permitted activation and consumption of WinRT types.
New behavior
Direct consumption of WinMDs is no longer possible by CoreCLR.
Examples of failures that may now occur:
Attempting to reference a no longer supported WinRT related assembly:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.WindowsRuntime, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.WindowsRuntime, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'
Activation of a WinRT class will result in the following:
Unhandled exception. System.PlatformNotSupportedException: Operation is not supported on this platform. (0x80131539)
Reason for change
- WinRT can be developed and improved separate from the .NET runtime.
- Symmetrical with interop systems provided for other OSes, like iOS and Android.
- Can take advantage of many other .NET features (AOT, C# features, IL linking).
- Simplifies the .NET runtime codebase.
Recommended action
Remove references to the Microsoft.Windows.SDK.Contracts package and replace them with references to the Microsoft.Windows.SDK.NET package.
Additionally, the recommendation is to use the C#/WinRT tool chain to generate or customize WinRT APIs and types in .NET 5.0 and beyond.
Category
Interop
Affected APIs
System.Runtime.InteropServices.WindowsRuntime
Issue metadata
- Issue type: breaking-change