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First published by FthrJACK
When: 27 Apr 2011 12:37 AM
Last revision by Richard Mueller (cMVP, Microsoft Community Contributo)
When: 17 Sep 2013 6:56 PM
Revisions: 18
Comments: 14

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Windows Forms Overview

Getting Started With Windows Forms
Community Resources
Other Languages
- Deutsch (de-DE)

Windows Forms is a set of classes in the .NET Framework that enables developers to quickly create Windows client applications, using powerful libraries for user-interface controls and displaying information. In Windows Forms, a form is a visual interface where information and controls are displayed to an end user. Controls are buttons, labels, graphs and other user interface (UI) elements where the end user can interact with the form. When a user interacts with controls on a form, say clicking a button, the action generates an event which is then handled by code in your application to perform tasks, for example performing a sum, or opening a folder on the operating system, or interacting with other Windows forms. The standard control set found in Visual Studio for Windows Forms is also extensible with the Usercontrol class, enabling developers to create their own unique controls inheriting properties and functions from the existing control set. There are also a number of third-party companies offering control sets to add to the already extensive library available in Visual Studio.

Getting Started With Windows Forms

There are many resources available to help anyone wanting to get started with Windows forms development. The Desktop Platform beginners guide on MSDN is a good place to start. There are also some excellent training videos and guides on the Windows Client website, which also incorporates Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). There's also a great guide and videos to getting started developing for Windows 7 on MSDN here.