Appendix A: .NET MAUI Configuration

Setting up for GUI and mobile development

In order to create .NET MAUI applications, you need some tools that might not have been installed when you set up your development environment. My goal here is to provide a quick, step-by-step guide to get you up and running with .NET MAUI development in Visual Studio Community or JetBrains Rider, the two IDEs I recommend for beginning developers. I’ll also include links for people using VS Code, though I don’t yet recommend it for MAUI development, as it’s still somewhat limited in that area.

By its nature, this kind of information can get out of date quickly, so each section includes links to the official documentation for the most up-to-date instructions.

Configure .NET MAUI in Visual Studio Community (Windows only)

Microsoft Learn provides detailed and up-to-date instructions for installing .NET MAUI workloads in Visual Studio Community: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/get-started/installation?view=net-maui-10.0&tabs=visual-studio

  • If it’s not already installed, you’ll begin by installing Visual Studio Community with the .NET Multi-platform App UI development workload.

  • If you already have Visual Studio Community installed, you can add the .NET Multi-platform App UI development workload by modifying your installation via the Visual Studio Installer.

Create and test a new .NET MAUI project in Visual Studio Community

Microsoft Learn provides detailed and up-to-date instructions for creating and testing a new .NET MAUI project in Visual Studio Community: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/get-started/first-app?view=net-maui-10.0&tabs=vswin&pivots=devices-windows

Configure .NET MAUI in JetBrains Rider (Windows, macOS, Linux)

If these directions are outdated, JetBrains provides detailed and up-to-date instructions for installing .NET MAUI workloads for Rider: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/MAUI.html#before-you-start. And please let me know, so I can update this content!

macOS users first need to have Xcode installed from the App Store, as it’s required for iOS and macOS development. Simply open the App Store application, search for "Xcode", and click "Get" to install it.

  1. Open a terminal or command prompt. In macOS or Linux, you can use the terminal application. In Windows, you can use Command Prompt or PowerShell.

  2. Run the following command to install the .NET MAUI workload:

    dotnet workload install maui

    Note: on macOS or Linux, you may need to prefix the command with sudo to run it with administrative privileges:

    sudo dotnet workload install maui

    If prompted, enter your password to authorize the installation.

  3. Confirm that your system has the required Java software (JDK version 11 or later) by running the following command:

    java --version

    If the java command is not found, or if the version is less than 11, install or update Java JDK. For a detailed walkthrough, see the following guides:

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