.NET 11 Preview 5 is now available!

Today, we are excited to announce the fifth preview release of .NET 11! This release includes improvements across the .NET Runtime, SDK, libraries, ASP.NET Core, .NET MAUI, C#, Entity Framework Core, and more. Check out the linked release notes below and get started today.

This release contains the following improvements.

📚Libraries

• System.Text.Json supports JSON Lines serialization
• LINQ adds full outer joins
• Cryptography adds X25519 key agreement
• Random adds generic numeric APIs
• See all library updates

⏱️Runtime

• Runtime-async suspension is faster
• JIT optimizations
• GC trimming and compaction improvements
• See all runtime updates

🛠️ SDK

• File-based apps can reference other C# files
• SDK vulnerability and EOL checks are available during build
• dotnet new includes the MCP Server template
• Console apps include System.Net.Http.Json by default
• See all SDK updates

C#

• Closed class hierarchies
• Union declarations and union patterns
• Unsafe Evolution
• See all C# updates

🌐 ASP.NET Core

• Blazor SSR supports client-side validation
• QuickGrid works without interactivity
• Blazor WebAssembly Gateway
• SupplyParameterFromSession for Blazor
• See all ASP.NET Core updates

📱 .NET MAUI

• Reliability and platform-fix wave lands in .NET 11
• Animations get CancellationToken-aware overloads
• Windows Maps gains a real implementation backed by Azure Maps
• .NET for Android stabilizes API 37
• See all .NET MAUI updates

🎁 Entity Framework Core

• dotnet ef supports file-based apps
• SQL Server 2022 compatibility is now the default
• EF1004 warns when async EF queries run synchronously
• Query translation produces cleaner SQL
• See all EF Core updates

🚀 Get started

To get started with .NET 11, install the .NET 11 SDK.

If you’re on Windows using Visual Studio, we recommend installing the latest Visual Studio 2026 Insiders. You can also use Visual Studio Code and the C# Dev Kit extension with .NET 11.