[WPF] VSCode shows error for WPF project: "The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context (Roslyn CS0103)

[HyVong007]

1/ Install .NET Core 7.0
2/ Create WPF project with "dotnet new wpf"
3/ VSCode > Open Folder.

After awhile, VSCode shows many errors:

"The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context"
Moreover, any variables declared in .XAML file will cause error if these variables are used in .CS file
Hope VSCode Dev Team will fix bugs soon, thank you very much !

[heartacker]

same there

[JoeRobich]

@HyVong007 @heartacker A couple questions to help narrow down which component might be responsible. Are you using the prerelease C# extension (2.x)? Do you also have the C# DevKit extension installed?

[HyVong007]

@HyVong007 @heartacker A couple questions to help narrow down which component might be responsible. Are you using the prerelease C# extension (2.x)? Do you also have the C# DevKit extension installed?

The first time i use C# dev kit (release) and C# (release) extensions => everything works fine !

Then C# Dev Kit shows me a notification that i must upgrade C# extension to pre-release version. After that, WPF has error "InitializeComponent does not exist......"

The notification is here:

[fbiwarning]

I have the same errror after upgrade the C# extension to pre-release version. After I switch the c# extension to the release version the error disappeared.

[nesteg]

I have the same errror with C# Dev Kit v0.4.10.

[marcin-przywoski]

I have the exact same issue as the person above on the same version of the Dev Kit. I had the same error on the previous versions as well though

[Cryptome2]

same issue. Any solution?

[sauntheninja2]

Seeing the same error. Is there any workaround to fix this issue? Tried searching over the internet but all the answers there were related to this error occurring in Visual Studio and not Visual Studio Code.

[engrusamajaved]

Same issue,
Is there any way to stop these suggestions in VS code, I'm get rid of these error lines.

[awa5114]

Same issue here. It doesn't happen in Visual Studio and compiles fine but somehow VS code throws the CS0103 error for a fresh wpf app created using dotnet new wpf

[Kokujou]

same for me. i already tried using omnisharp and preview versions and the dev toolkit, it's all the same. also no autocomplete for XAML but this might be another typic/plugin

[EthanXie0612]

I have the same issue, the wpf project can run normally, but vscode seems to be unable to associate xaml with xaml.cs properly, which is not an issue in Visual Studio

[bubuwang007]

Has anyone solved this problem? My OCD is acting up.

[vwnd]

I have the same.

[mart1058]

Still seeing this issue with C# version v2.14.8 and C# Dev Kit v1.1.16. Everything builds and runs OK but the error is still there. Any guidance at this point?

[MelDommer]

I am seeing this same thing. Project builds in Visual Studio but in vscode it says InitializeCompnent() doesn't exist. (I should add this is a net472 sdk project) The C# dev kit release and pre-release show this for me.

[Matt-Youlend]

Still broken, it has been months.

[Brentec-ca]

I am also seeing the same symptoms. It affects the hot reload functionality since an error is detected. You are then forced to stop the debugger and rebuild your project. Note that these errors are not preventing the building or running of the solution from scratch.
I'm experiencing this in Visual Studio 2022 with a .NET 6 WPF solution consisting of 5 projects.

To temporarily resolve the issue, this is what worked for me.

1. close the solution
2. close VS 2022
3. navigate to the project folder in File Explorer and show hidden files/folders
4. delete or rename the ".vs" folder
5. open the solution, errors gone.

Hope this temporary fix assists, but we really do need a permanent solution.

[marcin-przywoski]

@Brentec-ca we're not talking about Visual Studio here but rather Visual Studio code but I know what you are talking about. When I was inserting one custom control it didn't want to build this in znak designer but cleaning .vs folder, running dotnet clean and then rebuild fixes the issue

[PuR0kY]

Guys, delete "obj" folder of your application. Then rebuild, this will fix that. Visual Studio fix tho.

[marcin-przywoski]

@PuR0kY as you may have noticed we are talking about vs code extension here. What you're mentioning in VS is a completely separate thing

[PuR0kY]

@marcin-przywoski Yeah surely, I just had this issue with Visual Studio too, so thought would be nice to mention here. If not. I can delete it no without any problem.

[DustinLuck]

I'm seeing the same issue with

• VSCode v1.87.2
• C# v2.22.5
• C# Dev Kit v1.4.29

The strange thing is that this isn't preventing me from running my application.

[jere344]

Same here over multiple projects all working fine. A way to hide the error would be good too.

[marcin-przywoski]

Navigate to the g.i.cs file of the offending Page or Window, delete the g.i.cs file and rebuild solution. Or, if you're lazy, delete the obj directory inside your project directory and rebuild. This fixed it for me.

We're not talking about visual studio, we're talking about vs code

[obnews]

Guys, delete "obj" folder of your application. Then rebuild, this will fix that. Visual Studio fix tho.

It works on my VS, thanks.

[codenotworking]

I have the same issue with VS Code. As soon as I ran dotnet new wpf, open the project folder in VS Code, within MainWindows.xaml.cs I get The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context (CS0103).

But if I perform dotnet run, it compiles properly without any errors, and the window appears.

[aianlinb]

To all the people suffering from this problem:
I found a temporary solution that makes those errors disappear.
Just add these to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
	<Compile Include="obj/Debug/net8.0-windows/*.cs">
		<AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
	</Compile>
</ItemGroup>

Edit:

The path should be where the MainWindow.g.cs (or something similar) is. (Find by yourself under obj, must build the project first)
And make sure your class declaration in MainWindow.xaml.cs matches the one in the generated file. (e.g. public partial class MainWindow : Window)
Finally, try restarting vscode and rebuilding the solution.

(If that doesn't work, maybe you can try replacing Include with Update.)

[marcin-przywoski]

@aianlinb didn't work for me :/ even after I changed the path in Include to the matching one in my project

[codenotworking]

To all the people suffering from this problem: I found a temporary solution that makes those errors disappear. Just add these to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
	<Compile Include="obj/x64/Debug/net8.0-windows/*.cs">
		<AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
	</Compile>
</ItemGroup>

Unfortunately this didn't work for me.

[aianlinb]

@marcin-przywoski @codenotworking I edited some messages above, maybe try it again. wish good luck

[truncle]

To all the people suffering from this problem: I found a temporary solution that makes those errors disappear. Just add these to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
	<Compile Include="obj/Debug/net8.0-windows/*.cs">
		<AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
	</Compile>
</ItemGroup>

Edit:

The path should be where the MainWindow.g.cs (or something similar) is. (Find by yourself under obj, must build the project first) And make sure your class declaration in MainWindow.xaml.cs matches the one in the generated file. (e.g. public partial class MainWindow : Window) Finally, try restarting vscode and rebuilding the solution.

(If that doesn't work, maybe you can try replacing Include with Update.)

This works for me, it helps bro, thanks. Seems like Visual Studio does something for the generated build, but the vscode extension does not, so it should be done manually.

[Matt-Youlend]

Turn this on and it will be fixed. At least we now know it's the c# dev kit extension that is plaguing us.

[JoeRobich]

The DevKit tracking issue for this bug is microsoft/vscode-dotnettools#1018

[mart1058]

Turn this on and it will be fixed. At least we now know it's the c# dev kit extension that is plaguing us.

Finally a solution that works!

[3boud0]

Turn this on and it will be fixed. At least we now know it's the c# dev kit extension that is plaguing us.

Thank you a lot, it worked for me

[ShortArrow]

Turn this on and it will be fixed. At least we now know it's the c# dev kit extension that is plaguing us.

But, This make xUnit Test Explorer is disable.
This is a serious problem.

This is fine because you can run it with dotnet cli.
But even so, It's sad that after all the hard work and effort put into releasing this software, people can't use all of it just because InitializeComponent and some xaml component isn't recognized.

BTW, is there no similar bug in MAUI?
If so, it may be time to move in a new direction.

[ShortArrow]

To all the people suffering from this problem: I found a temporary solution that makes those errors disappear. Just add these to your .csproj file:

<ItemGroup>
	<Compile Include="obj/Debug/net8.0-windows/*.cs">
		<AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
	</Compile>
</ItemGroup>

Edit:

The path should be where the MainWindow.g.cs (or something similar) is. (Find by yourself under obj, must build the project first) And make sure your class declaration in MainWindow.xaml.cs matches the one in the generated file. (e.g. public partial class MainWindow : Window) Finally, try restarting vscode and rebuilding the solution.

(If that doesn't work, maybe you can try replacing Include with Update.)

This is work for me in my solution, that using wpf. Not real, this is fail.

  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Update="obj/Debug/net8.0-windows/*.cs">
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Update="obj/Win32/Debug/net8.0-windows/*.cs">
      <AutoGen>True</AutoGen>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>

[ahall-veic]

I unchecked the Dotnet: Prefer CSharp Extension, but it appears to have also disabled the build button in the IDE. I can still run the app from the command line via dotnet run, but it's not as convenient. I can definitely live with doing this rather than having this error and others like it in the editor, but it would be nice if the C# Dev Kit worked as expected.

[Foadsf]

Confirming that adding "dotnet.preferCSharpExtension": true to the workspace .vscode/settings.json does work around the issue where InitializeComponent is incorrectly flagged as an error in the VS Code editor for WPF projects, even when dotnet build succeeds.

However, this feels like a temporary remedy rather than a proper solution. Relying on this setting effectively disables the primary C# Dev Kit (ms-dotnettools.csdevkit) language server features by forcing a fallback to the older C# extension logic (as indicated by warning messages like "The C# Dev Kit extension is disabled because the setting 'dotnet.preferCSharpExtension' is set to 'true'").

Ideally, the C# Dev Kit language server should be able to reliably locate and parse the generated .g.cs files (including the one defining InitializeComponent) produced by a standard WPF build using the correct .NET SDK. A more robust solution might involve:

1. Ensuring C# Dev Kit correctly identifies the SDK specified by global.json for its analysis.
2. Providing a way for C# Dev Kit to respect SDK discovery hints like dotnetAcquisitionExtension.existingDotnetPath.
3. Offering a specific C# Dev Kit setting to explicitly define the dotnet.exe or SDK path it should use for project analysis, separate from build/run tasks.

This would allow developers to use the full capabilities of the C# Dev Kit while still getting correct IntelliSense for WPF projects.

[dibarbet]

However, this feels like a temporary remedy rather than a proper solution. Relying on this setting effectively disables the primary C# Dev Kit

The C# Dev Kit side issue is tracked here - microsoft/vscode-dotnettools#1018
However the fix looks like it goes into the .NET SDK. This should definitely be fixed in .NET 10, and may be backported (see dotnet/wpf#10489)