Visual Studio 2022 - XAML Designer not opening for WinUI project

Question

It’s impossible to open any .xaml file in XAML designer - any time I try to open a XAML file with XAML Designer it's opening with text editor instead

What I tried:

• make sure Tools > Options > XAML Designer is enabled
• make sure Tools > Options > Environemnt > Preview Features > Use previews of the .NET SDK is enabled
• disable XAML Designer, re-launch, enable XAML Designer, re-launch
• select .xaml file in Solution Explorer and press F7, or Shift-F7
• select .xaml file in Solution Explorer, right click, Open With…, choose XAML Designer or XAML Designer with Encoding
• make sure Visual Studio is updated to latest version
• uninstall Visual Studio, remove the contents of AppData/Local/Microsoft/VisualStudio, VisualStudio Services, VSCommon and VSApplicationInsights folders, restart, reinstall Visual Studio

Visual Studio Community 2022, v. 17.12.1

Target OS: Windows

Target OS version: 10.0.19041.0

Target Framework: .NET 8.0

Any ideas on how do I make XAML Designer to wor

Answer 1

At the moment no, there's no designer.

But there's an ongoing plan for Visual Studio designer and we might see some progress in the upcoming WinAppSdk v1.7.

If you want a designer right now, you should checkout HotDesign from Uno Platform which is based on WinUI for Windows.