winforms Getting started with winforms Creating a Simple C# WinForms Application using a Text Editor

Example

1. Open a text editor (like Notepad), and type the code below:

    using System;
    using System.ComponentModel;
    using System.Drawing;
    using System.Windows.Forms;
   
    namespace SampleApp
    {
        public class MainForm : Form
        {
            private Button btnHello;
   
            // The form's constructor: this initializes the form and its controls.
            public MainForm()
            {
                // Set the form's caption, which will appear in the title bar.
                this.Text = "MainForm";
   
                // Create a button control and set its properties.
                btnHello = new Button();
                btnHello.Location = new Point(89, 12);
                btnHello.Name = "btnHello";
                btnHello.Size = new Size(105, 30);
                btnHello.Text = "Say Hello";
   
                // Wire up an event handler to the button's "Click" event
                // (see the code in the btnHello_Click function below).
                btnHello.Click += new EventHandler(btnHello_Click);
   
                // Add the button to the form's control collection,
                // so that it will appear on the form.
                this.Controls.Add(btnHello);
            }
   
            // When the button is clicked, display a message.
            private void btnHello_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Hello, World!");
            }
   
            // This is the main entry point for the application.
            // All C# applications have one and only one of these methods.
            [STAThread]
            static void Main()
            {
                Application.EnableVisualStyles();
                Application.Run(new MainForm());
            }
        }
    }
   

2. Save the file to a path you have read/write access to. It is conventional to name the file after the class that it contains—for example, X:\MainForm.cs.

3. Run the C# compiler from the command line, passing the path to the code file as an argument:

    %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\csc.exe /target:winexe "X:\MainForm.cs"
   

   Note: To use a version of the C# compiler for other .NET framework versions, take a look in the path, %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET and modify the example above accordingly. For more information on compiling C# applications, see Compile and run your first C# program.

4. After compilation has completed, an application called MainForm.exe will be created in the same directory as your code file. You can run this application either from the command line or by double-clicking on it in Explorer.