Windows App SDK 1.6 is now live with new native AOT support and more

Microsoft has just released the latest version of its Windows App SDK development tool. The new version number is 1.6 and includes quite a few new features.

In a post on the official Windows blog, Microsoft says Windows App SDK 1.6 adds native support for Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation. AOT apps are compiled ahead of time (hence the name) to native code before they are published. This should allow the app to start faster and also use less memory.

Microsoft even shows a demo of how a native AOT app performs against one that is not an native AOT app:

In our sample Contoso Camera app, we measured a 50% reduction in start time, an ~8x reduction in package size when using a framework package and a ~2x reduction in package size when using Windows App SDK in self-contained mode.

Some of the other new features and improvements in the Windows App SDK 1.6 release include enhancements for its package management APIs and it has also decoupled the WinAppSDK from the Edge WebView2 API.

Developers can also try out a new CanTearOutTabs mode for dragging tabs out of an app. Microsoft says:

In the new mode, dragging a tab out of your app’s TabView is very similar to the tab drag experience in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome where a new window is immediately created during the drag. This allows users to visually see feedback of their action right away and it lets them drag the new window to the edge of the screen to maximize or snap it in one continuous motion.

The new 1.6 version of the Windows App SDK includes even more improvements and new APIs as well which you can check out in the blog post. You can also check out the Windows App SDK page on GitHub along with the Windows UI library.

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