NuGet Package Referencing with Visual Studio Toolbox

If you are using the Visual Studio Toolbox (described further below) to add instances of components to your project, the NuGet package and/or assembly references are created for you by Visual Studio automatically, when you drag the component onto the designer’s surface.

When NuGet packages are added to your project by dragging an item from Visual Studio Toolbox, the usual prompts asking you to review and accept the NuGet package licenses may not appear. In this case, you should still review the licenses of any referenced or dependent NuGet packages.

This technique only works for certain kinds of projects (such as Windows Forms or WPF) and certain kinds of project items in them.

This is the approach used in the "Getting Started" articles:

We recommend switching your project from package.config model to PackageReference model. For more information, see Installing NuGet Packages in Visual Studio.

In runtime, all user interface features (such as controls, dialogs, and live binding; Windows Forms and WPF) and non-visual components are supported both under .NET Framework and .NET 6+. However, "designing" them (this includes tasks like dragging from the Toolbox, or configuring in Properties window) in Visual Studio is only possible in .NET Framework projects. In order to achieve visual design for .NET 6+ projects, the developer can make two project files over the same set of source files, one targeting .NET Framework and one targeting .NET 6+, and use the project that targets .NET Framework for visual design tasks.

Introduction

Licensing in Visual Studio

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