What you need to know
- A new preview version of Project Reunion is now available.
- Features support for WinUI 3, WebView2, and .NET 5 applications.
- Includes down-level support for Windows 10 version 1809.
Microsoft has today announced a new preview version of its new Project Reunion app framework, designed to unify the development platforms across Win32 and UWP apps. Microsoft launched Project Reunion 0.5 in March, and today is releasing version 0.8 which includes down-level support for Windows 10 version 1809 and up, .NET 5 support, as well as better WinUI 3 and WebView2 support.
Project Reunion is a project that aims to make it easy for Windows app developers to use APIs across both Win32 and UWP development platforms. Microsoft's vision for Project Reunion is for it to be the go-to framework for building Windows apps going forward, minimizing the gap between Win32 and UWP apps and simply calling them all "Windows apps" instead.
A Microsoft blog post detailed the following:
With Project Reunion you get access to modern Windows technologies and new features, plus the best of existing desktop (Win32) features. You get coherent, modern interactions and UX with WinUI 3 – and great system performance and battery life for your apps. That's why we're excited to announce the Project Reunion 0.8 preview so you can create and modernize your Windows apps seamlessly for both client and cloud endpoints. You can build experiences optimized for device hardware with hassle free app discovery and management and future proofed for Arm64.
Today's preview features support for WinUI 3 and WebView2, which bring modern technologies that allow app developers to either update their apps with modern interfaces or use Microsoft Edge's rendering engine for web-based content.
Reunion 0.8 also includes support for .NET 5 applications, which includes support for Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Forms apps. One of the great things about Project Reunion is that it's decoupled from Windows, meaning app developers can use it and target any version of Windows 10 from version 1809 and up.
