Dumb question probably, but in .NET 6, where are all the dll's when creating a class library?

Question

I'm trying to create a class library and it needs to include System.Windows.Forms, including a bunch of other packages. It's not automatically included in the project for some reason, so I figured I could just add it. When I go to add a reference to the project, there's nothing available. In past prjects, there has been a big list of available references in the Reference Manager. Am I missing something huge here? Thanks

Reference Manager that I'm seeing

Answer 1

Start again. You created the wrong project type to start with. This is what you want:

Note that, once you've created a project using the appropriate template, you can examine the differences between that and a regular Class Library project. For the record, here's the project file for the former:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0-windows</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

and here's the project file for the latter:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

If you check out the dependencies for each, you'll see that the former includes the Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.WindowsForms framework that the latter lacks.