PresentationFramework

PresentationFramework is a core library in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that provides the higher-level user interface features of WPF. It includes the framework's controls, layout panels, data binding, styles, templates, resources, and many runtime services used to build rich desktop user interfaces on Windows. In conjunction with PresentationCore and WindowsBase, PresentationFramework enables the declarative creation of UI through XAML and the programmatic construction of elements in code.

It contains common controls such as Button, TextBox, ListView, and DataGrid, as well as layout containers like Grid and StackPanel. It also implements data binding, dependency properties, data templates, control templates, styles, triggers, and animation support. Routing of events and commands, command binding, and input handling are provided to support interactive applications. It also exposes navigation features via components like Frame and Page, and supports resources and localization through ResourceDictionary and related types.

PresentationFramework relies on PresentationCore for rendering and on WindowsBase for core base types. It also uses System.Xaml to parse XAML at load time and at compile time. The assembly is Windows-only and is part of the WPF stack introduced with .NET Framework 3.0 and carried forward into later .NET releases for Windows desktop development.

Developers reference PresentationFramework when building WPF applications with XAML, typically compiling to PresentationFramework.dll along with PresentationCore.dll, WindowsBase.dll, and System.Xaml.dll. It is designed to be used with languages supported by .NET, such as C# and Visual Basic.