The .NET 11 Preview 7 release is now available to developers, bringing a wide range of updates covering the platform's core components and application development tools. The release includes improvements to the libraries, runtime, SDK, and languages and frameworks associated with .NET, along with updates aimed at web and mobile applications, databases, and Windows applications.
Library and Runtime Updates
The libraries add IEEE 754-compatible decimal floating-point types, support for Generic Complex<T>, HTTP request compression, and the ability to configure HTTP connection eviction. They also include APIs for resolving DNS records, support for ZIP archive passwords, more APIs for creating and extracting archives and reading their metadata, as well as APIs for ordinal encoding.
System.Text.Json adds polymorphism inference for closed hierarchies, while ChangeToken.OnChange now supports asynchronous execution. At the runtime level, improvements include asynchronous runtime tiering, tail-await improvements, and running CoreCLR on WebAssembly for the library test suite, along with updates to the JIT, code generation, NativeAOT, and runtime diagnostics.
SDK, C#, and Test Development
NativeAOT is now enabled by default in the dotnet CLI, as is the MSBuild server. The dotnet test command gains options for execution timeouts at the run level and the maximum number of failed tests, and it supports Microsoft.Build.Traversal projects. Test updates include improvements to reporting in Microsoft.Testing.Platform and support for .NET MAUI devices and environments.
The release addresses reference validation and file freshness issues in file-based applications, makes container publishing prefer the platform's native local runtimes, and enables .NET tool packages to support custom RID arrays. C# adds labeled break and continue, union patterns that match either the union or its value, completeness checking for type parameters constrained by a closed hierarchy, along with updates to compatibility mode and nameof under Unsafe Evolution.
ASP.NET Core and .NET MAUI
ASP.NET Core updates include pausing Blazor circuits when inactive, caching Blazor SSR output using CacheView, and new analyzers for Blazor. QuickGrid now supports the InitialItemIndex and ScrollToItemAsync properties, wasm-tools uses Emscripten version 6, and Razor accepts literal attributes for component parameters with union types.
The platform adds localization for built-in validation, support for authentication updates in the .NET SignalR client after redirects, Server-Sent Events in OpenAPI 3.2, and access to TLS channel binding tokens from ITlsConnectionFeature. In .NET MAUI, additions include cross-platform passkey authentication, incremental XAML hot reload, Shell route templates, AOT-safe RelativeSource bindings, support for external platform backgrounds, and improvements to TabbedPage on Apple platforms.
Entity Framework Core, F#, and Windows Forms
Entity Framework Core receives improvements to LINQ query translation, the Azure Cosmos DB provider, and migrations, along with support for the Half type in SQLite. F# updates include support for arithmetic expression bindings on the right-hand side of ordinary let bindings, resolving attributes inside recursive modules and namespaces, clearer diagnostic messages for some attribute type abbreviations, and a fix for the StructLayout size version of struct unions that contain no data.
Windows Forms enables opting into .NET 11 visual styles, interacting with the system's visual display settings, and avoiding white flashes in dark mode through deferred form detection. Drawing can also be suspended during bulk changes to control properties, and a toggle-switch appearance has been added to CheckBox and RadioButton.
How to Get Started
To start using .NET 11 Preview 7, Microsoft recommends installing the .NET 11 SDK. On Windows, Visual Studio users are advised to install the latest version of Visual Studio 2026 Insiders, with the option to use Visual Studio Code and the C# Dev Kit extension with .NET 11.