Windows Forms Controls and Equivalent WPF Controls

Windows Presentation Foundation

Updated: July 2008

Many Windows Forms controls have equivalent WPF controls, but some Windows Forms controls have no equivalents in WPF. This topic compares control types provided by the two technologies.

You can always use interoperation to host Windows Forms controls that do not have equivalents in your WPF-based applications.

The following table shows which Windows Forms controls and components have equivalent WPF control functionality.

Windows Forms control	Windows Presentation Foundation equivalent control	Remarks
BindingNavigator	No equivalent control.
BindingSource	CollectionViewSource
Button	Button
CheckBox	CheckBox
CheckedListBox	ListBox with composition.
ColorDialog	No equivalent control.
ComboBox	ComboBox	ComboBox does not support auto-complete.
ContextMenuStrip	ContextMenu
DataGridView	No equivalent control.	Some capabilities of the DataGridView control are reproduced with the ListView and GridView controls.
DateTimePicker	No equivalent control.
DomainUpDown	TextBox and two RepeatButton controls.
ErrorProvider	No equivalent control.
FlowLayoutPanel	WrapPanel or StackPanel
FolderBrowserDialog	No equivalent control.
FontDialog	No equivalent control.
Form	Window	Window does not support child windows.
GroupBox	GroupBox
HelpProvider	No equivalent control.	No F1 Help. "What's This" Help is replaced by ToolTips.
HScrollBar	ScrollBar	Scrolling is built into container controls.
ImageList	No equivalent control.
Label	Label
LinkLabel	No equivalent control.	You can use the Hyperlink class to host hyperlinks within flow content.
ListBox	ListBox
ListView	ListView	The ListView control provides a read-only details view.
MaskedTextBox	No equivalent control.
MenuStrip	Menu	Menu control styling can approximate the behavior and appearance of the System.Windows.Forms..::.ToolStripProfessionalRenderer class.
MonthCalendar	No equivalent control.
NotifyIcon	No equivalent control.
NumericUpDown	TextBox and two RepeatButton controls.
OpenFileDialog	OpenFileDialog	The OpenFileDialog class is a WPF wrapper around the Win32 control.
PageSetupDialog	No equivalent control.
Panel	Canvas
PictureBox	Image
PrintDialog	PrintDialog
PrintDocument	No equivalent control.
PrintPreviewControl	DocumentViewer
PrintPreviewDialog	No equivalent control.
ProgressBar	ProgressBar
PropertyGrid	No equivalent control.
RadioButton	RadioButton
RichTextBox	RichTextBox
SaveFileDialog	SaveFileDialog	The SaveFileDialog class is a WPF wrapper around the Win32 control.
ScrollableControl	ScrollViewer
SoundPlayer	MediaPlayer
SplitContainer	GridSplitter
StatusStrip	StatusBar
TabControl	TabControl
TableLayoutPanel	Grid
TextBox	TextBox
Timer	DispatcherTimer
ToolStrip	ToolBar
ToolStripContainer	ToolBar with composition.
ToolStripDropDown	ToolBar with composition.
ToolStripDropDownMenu	ToolBar with composition.
ToolStripPanel	ToolBar with composition.
ToolTip	ToolTip
TrackBar	Slider
TreeView	TreeView
UserControl	UserControl
VScrollBar	ScrollBar	Scrolling is built into container controls.
WebBrowser	Frame, System.Windows.Controls..::.WebBrowser	The Frame control can host HTML pages. Starting in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, the System.Windows.Controls..::.WebBrowser control can host HTML pages and also backs the Frame control.

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2008	Added mention of the WebBrowser control.	SP1 feature change.

Date

History

Reason

July 2008

Added mention of the WebBrowser control.

SP1 feature change.

Tasks

Concepts

Reference

Other Resources