| name | winui-generic-xaml |
| description | Locate and inspect WinUI 3 default styles in Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.WinUI generic.xaml files from the local NuGet package cache. Use when you needs to find default WinUI control templates, theme resources, VisualState definitions, style setters, or compare app XAML against WinUI's packaged generic.xaml. |
WinUI Generic XAML
Use the restored NuGet assets as the source of truth. Do not guess the package cache path or version.
Locate generic.xaml
- Find the relevant
project.assets.json, usually under the main project's obj folder. Use publish-specific assets such as obj\publish\win-x64\project.assets.json only when investigating publish behavior.
- Read
packageFolders from the assets file. These are the local NuGet roots that restore actually used.
- Find the
libraries entry whose name starts with Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.WinUI/. Use its path value rather than reconstructing the lower-case package folder manually.
- Combine each package root with the package version currently using (e.g.
2.1.0 -> ~\.nuget\packages\microsoft.windowsappsdk.winui\2.1.0\lib) and check whether the directory exists.
- Under that directory, choose the framework-specific
generic.xaml first when the app targets .NET:
lib\<target-framework>\Microsoft.WinUI\Themes\generic.xaml
- Fall back to the native packaged XAML only when the framework-specific file is absent or the investigation is native-packaging-specific:
lib\native\Microsoft.UI\Themes\generic.xaml
Inspect Safely
generic.xaml is large. Prefer targeted search before opening broad ranges.
- Search for a control key or type name with
rg, for example rg -n "DefaultButtonStyle|TargetType=\"Button\"|x:Key=\"Button" on the resolved file.
- Read a narrow range around the match after finding the line number.
- Preserve the distinction between
DefaultStyleKey, implicit styles, keyed styles, BasedOn, theme dictionaries, and VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups.
- When comparing with app XAML, copy only the relevant setters, resources, or template parts. Do not fork an entire default template unless the requested change requires it.
