Visual Studio Code – Can I use VSCode for developing WINDOW DESKTOP Apps using WinUI 3 or MAUI or UNO stack?

Finally, yes VSCode can be used to run WinUI 3 apps.

In the WinUI csproj, please make sure you add these properties in the property group,

 - <Platform>x64</Platform> (Required for VSCode)
 - <Platforms>x86;x64;arm64</Platforms> (Required for Visual Studio)
 - <WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>true</WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>
 (Required for exe)

It's ok to have both Platform and Platforms in the same project. Perhaps, having the common architecture would be an ideal way. In my case I preferred to go with X64 for both Platform and Platforms (based on my requirement).

Please also add launch.json & tasks.json in .vscode folder (as in, https://github.com/to-marss/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode-)

launch.json

{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
    {
        // Use IntelliSense to find out which attributes exist for C# debugging
        // Use hover for the description of the existing attributes
        // For further information visit https://github.com/OmniSharp/omnisharp-vscode/blob/master/debugger-launchjson.md
        "name": ".NET Core Launch (console)",
        "type": "coreclr",
        "request": "launch",
        "preLaunchTask": "build",
        // If you have changed target frameworks, make sure to update the program path.
        "program": "${workspaceFolder}/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode/bin/x64/Debug/net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win10-x64/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode.exe",
        "args": [],
        "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode",
        // For more information about the 'console' field, see https://aka.ms/VSCode-CS-LaunchJson-Console
        "console": "internalConsole",
        "stopAtEntry": false
    },
    {
        "name": ".NET Core Attach",
        "type": "coreclr",
        "request": "attach"
    }
]

}

tasks.json

{
"version": "2.0.0",
"tasks": [
    {
        "label": "build",
        "command": "dotnet",
        "type": "process",
        "args": [
            "build",
            "${workspaceFolder}/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode.csproj",
            "/property:GenerateFullPaths=true",
            "/consoleloggerparameters:NoSummary"
        ],
        "problemMatcher": "$msCompile"
    },
    {
        "label": "publish",
        "command": "dotnet",
        "type": "process",
        "args": [
            "publish",
            "${workspaceFolder}/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode.csproj",
            "/property:GenerateFullPaths=true",
            "/consoleloggerparameters:NoSummary"
        ],
        "problemMatcher": "$msCompile"
    },
    {
        "label": "watch",
        "command": "dotnet",
        "type": "process",
        "args": [
            "watch",
            "run",
            "--project",
            "${workspaceFolder}/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode/WinUI3TestRunInVSCode.csproj"
        ],
        "problemMatcher": "$msCompile"
    }
]

}

With this setup we can use dotnet cli commands to build and run the app from VSCode. We can do the commands below,

1. dotnet build - Build the libraries.
2. dotnet run - Run the exe and app is displayed.
3. dotnet watch - To have the hot reload behavior, update changes on runtime.
4. dotnet publish - To publish the app.

P.S. This works fine for any WinUI3 apps and UNO's WinUI target. I hope same can be achieved in MAUI with the minor .csproj changes as above. Hope this helps!