Winslop – WinUI3 Rebuild

[Belim]

++++ Winslop v26.03.40 – Migration: WinForms > WinUI 3 (.NET 10) +++

Well… yesterdays post was written at peak frustration.

But I didn't want to let it go.
So I sat down, kept pushing, and after one long night and half a day more, I actually managed to migrate Winslop from its classic WinForms / .NET Framework base to a working WinUI 3 version.
Was it fun?
About 90% of it was a miserable experience.
But, and this is the annoying part, the remaining 10% was actually kind of satisfying. Once I got deeper into it, things slowly started clicking, I got faster, more confident, and piece by piece the app began to come together.

That still does not mean I'm suddenly a fan of this UI stack.

But the port now exists, and that means there’s something real to look at and judge.

So heres the deal:
Try it, break it, judge it, and let me know what you think.

Because this is probably the point where Winslop needs to choose its path:

• Go down the modern Microslop road with WinUI 3
• Or stay what it has always been at heart: a classic retro desktop app lean, fast, efficient, and without half the universe attached to a button

🗳 Help decide Winslop's future.
Please join the poll and cast your vote here:
#36

Below is yesterdays slightly emotional write-up, preserved for historical accuracy.

Yesterday's WinUI meltdown

🎉 So after some experiments, frustrations, and a few choice words directed at Microslop's UI stack, Winslop ultimately stays true to its roots.

I need to vent about WinUI.
I moved Winslop from .NET Framework 4.8.1 to .NET 10 first and honestly, that still felt like half a solution.
So I went straight for the next "logical" step: a WinUI conversion

Here's the thing: I'm a minimalist. I like lean code, direct control, and software that doesn't require a small religion to maintain. That's why, in the Microsoft .NET ecosystem, I still stick with WinForms. Without WinForms, I probably wouldn't even keep a second OS partition just to run Windows 11. WinForms is one of the few things in the whole stack that still feels... sane.

So, WinUI. "Modern Windows 11 UI experience", right? (Screenshot below)

After about five hours, I had a working MainWindow.xaml and a connected feature page that sort of worked. But the scope and ceremony were insane. To me it felt like migrating a classic VB6 application to VB.NET back in the day. You know, back before Microsoft also decided to slowly suffocate VB.NET for sport.

And I'm sorry, but why is everything so Microslop?
There was a time when you could build a full Windows app with a few forms and some logic. Now it feels like you need three frameworks, four patterns, and a ceremonial XAML ritual just to show a button. We managed to land humans on the moon in 1969 with computers weaker than a modern toaster — but in 2026 a simple Windows UI apparently requires half the Microsoft ecosystem and a small architectural thesis.

F*ckkkk... Like… no, seriously. I'm not doing this. WinUI is a monster. It's not "modern", it's unbounded complexity disguised as progress.
It's a stack that constantly demands more structure, more glue, more patterns, more XAML rituals until your simple little utility starts looking like a corporate enterprise app with a thousand moving parts.

Sure, I could have made it easy and let a coding agent brute-force the conversion. But what's the point?
Programming is something I genuinely enjoy. It relaxes me. But not like this. I'm not 19 anymore, chasing the Silicon Valley fantasy of a multimillion-dollar startup fueled by vibe-coding and buzzwords. I want to build software, not manage a labyrinth.

And honestly, I should have known better.

If you want to understand what WinUI is, just look at the "fancy" Windows 11 Explorer:
pretty? maybe. but sluggish, inconsistent, and occasionally bizarre. It's the perfect demo of the WinUI promise and the WinUI reality.

The slow parts are WinUI 3, and the buggy parts are Win32

Microslop in a nutshell.
No wonder 80% of Microslop apps are web apps now — even those often feel faster than WinUI.

So yeah. Sorry, folks. Winslop stays a classic WinForms app.
I'm not spending my limited time on this kind of bullshit.

Whats new?

Winslop v26.03.40 – Migration: WinForms > WinUI 3 (.NET 10)
• Fully rebuilt UI: WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK 1.8)
• Migrated from .NET Framework 4.8 (WinForms) to .NET 10 (Preview)
• Mica backdrop, page-cached navigation, MVVM TreeView, plugin manager
• Portable: No installer needed, just unzip and run
Included in the package:
• Winslop.exe (main app)
• Compiled XAML pages (*.xbf)
• Plugins folder (optional)
• .NET 10 runtime (self-contained, no install required)
• Windows App SDK DLLs (UI framework)
• Only English language resources
• No MSIX/Store assets
Requirements:
• Windows 10/11 (1809 or newer)
• Windows App SDK Runtime (may need to be installed once)
• No .NET installation needed

Release package:
Winslop-v26.03.40.zip
The classic WinForms version is available as a legacy asset Winslop-26.3.31-legacy.zip for download.

🗳 Help decide Winslop's future.
Please join the poll and cast your vote here:
#36

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This discussion was created from the release Winslop – WinUI3 Rebuild.

[aloneguid]

I'm sorry but I think you've just sloppified WinSlop with that WinUI thing. It might visually look better but considering users launch it once, it counterproductive on all fronts. Please delete WinUI, no one uses it. All 3 developers who do, are already looking for a new job.

P.S. I hope you are not going to add "Copilot" button as well.

[Belim]

fair point but what exactly bothers you about it?

is it the startup time, perceived slowness, the package size, or something else? from a functionality standpoint nothing changed. the winui version is basically a 1:1 port, no features removed and nothing fundamentally behaves differently
im genuinely trying to understand how users react to these framework changes. to be honest, i wasnt exactly thrilled about winui yesterday either, you can probably tell from my rant and im still not fully convinced.

that said, quite a few solid windows tools like wintoys or powertoys are also moving in that direction, so i wanted to explore it and see how it feels in practice

curious though are you more of a power user type?

[aloneguid]

Honestly, I think the old design is much better. What genuinely made me upset is the absolute bloat of an application now, over 100mb for something that changes registry values. Now we have huge application size, terrible UI in my opinion - honestly, those massive checkboxes are hard to scan and read comparing to the old utility.
Regarding PowerToys, that is also the reason many people avoid it now - multi-gigabyte package of bloat, gone the days it used to be great. As you have mentioned somewhere, I understand why MS is just putting chrome browser in every OS button now.

[ed-br]

#36 (comment)

[ed-br]

Absolutely love this Winui3 update. Winslop was always a great tool, but the classic look was honestly pretty rough on the eyes. The WinUI 3 version feels way more at home on Windows 11. Please keep going in that direction, Belim this is the future, and it really doesnt feel bloated at all