Last month, Microsoft published an overview post on the .NET Dev blog that showcased the top 5 .NET MAUI features for creating powerful desktop applications.

In addition to building cross-platform mobile apps, .NET MAUI can also be used to create beautiful desktop apps for Windows and Mac.
Your app can target desktop platforms only, or it can target mobile and desktop form factors anywhere. Either way, you want to provide the best experience for your users no matter what device they’re on.

Multi-window

A fundamental change in .NET MAUI was the introduction of the window as the underlying foundation. When an application is created and launched in .NET MAUI, it automatically has a default Window that is used to display content. The Application class has a new CreateWindow method that is called whenever a new Window is created. When applications run on the desktop (or on a tablet), there is more real estate to take advantage of, which means you may want to create a second or third Window instead of navigating around.

The top-level menu bar

When using desktop apps, one of the most common features is the menu bar, which is integrated into the app in Windows or the system menu bar on a Mac. With .NET MAUI, you can easily integrate a menu bar with just a few lines of code. An added benefit is that when your users launch your application on an iPad with a keyboard, they will also have access to the menu bar.

Context menus

Sometimes developers want to give more options when a user right-clicks on an item. They want a menu similar to the menu bar, but based on a specific context. This is where context menus come into use in .NET MAUI applications. They have a similar API as the menu bar, but are placed over a specific control.

Tooltips

Tooltips are a quick and easy way to add functionality to an application and improve the user experience. Desktop users have a mouse and keyboard at their disposal, which means additional context can be provided when they hover over a control in the application. Using the attached TooltipProperties.Text property allows you to specify additional information that is displayed to the user when they mouse over.

Pointer gestures

Speaking of enhancing desktop applications when users navigate with the mouse, .NET MAUI has several new gesture recognizers specifically for the mouse pointer. You can easily see when a pointer has entered, excited, or moved inside a control.