The MAUI app project template does not target windows out-of-the-box

[Dbquity]

Description

Following the steps to create a MAUI app, I get a project that does not target windows:

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new project using the ".NET MAUI App (Preview)" template
2. open dependencies in the solution explorer

Version with bug

Unknown/Other (please specify)

Last version that worked well

Unknown/Other

Affected platforms

Windows

Affected platform versions

I don't know how to see the version of the project templates - or how to update those other than when updating VS itself

Did you find any workaround?

I can fix this in the project file by removing the xml comments around this line

<!-- <TargetFrameworks Condition="$([MSBuild]::IsOSPlatform('windows')) and '$(MSBuildRuntimeType)' == 'Full'">$(TargetFrameworks);net6.0-windows10.0.19041</TargetFrameworks> -->

and changing this section

<ItemGroup Condition="$(TargetFramework.Contains('-windows'))">
    <!-- Required - WinUI does not yet have buildTransitive for everything -->
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK" Version="1.0.0-experimental1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.Foundation" Version="1.0.0-experimental1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.WinUI" Version="1.0.0-experimental1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.InteractiveExperiences" Version="1.0.0-experimental1" NoWarn="NU1701" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Graphics.Win2D" Version="1.0.0.26-experimental1" />
</ItemGroup>

to

<ItemGroup Condition="$(TargetFramework.Contains('-windows'))">
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK" Version="1.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Graphics.Win2D" Version="1.0.0.30" />
</ItemGroup>

Relevant log output

No response

[Dbquity]

This issue was prompted by the comments in #3625

[jfversluis]

I think you need to update your templates, this has not been the default for a while now. To clarify: the recent versions of templates have Windows enabled by default for a couple of previews already.

For some reason the templates aren't updated nicely with Visual Studio, you can update them manually at this time by running the following command in a terminal window: dotnet new -i Microsoft.Maui.Templates

Also check this portion of a video by James for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugem4UbAtC0&t=672s

[Dbquity]

Thanks @jfversluis !

Is the comment in the second line below still needed?

<ItemGroup Condition="$(TargetFramework.Contains('-windows'))">
    <!-- Required - WinUI does not yet have buildTransitive for everything -->
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK" Version="1.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Graphics.Win2D" Version="1.0.0.30" />
</ItemGroup>

[jfversluis]

I think so. I think ultimately we can do without these explicit references and it will be implied by adding .NET MAUI to your project, but it seems WinUI hasn't implemented something like that yet... But I might be mistaken.

Why you ask?

[Dbquity]

I was merely curious - half expecting an explanation along the lines you just gave :-)
Thanks again for a very quick answer!
(my next step is to try publishing to windows - and I will be following your bullet 4 from issue 4329)
(edited to get rid of the linking between issues, since that seems not very relevant...)

[jfversluis]

Let me know how that one goes!