Latest update! Microsoft officially launched the first preview of .NET 10, achieving another milestone and success in their development framework. With a focus on improved performance, runtime, libraries, and reliability, it continues to refine the existing features, making the development part seamless for the teams.
James Montemagno, a Principal Lead Program Manager for Developer Community said “Today, we are excited to announce the first preview release of .NET 10! We just shipped our first preview release, adding to some major enhancements across the .NET Runtime, SDK, libraries, C#, ASP.NET Core, Blazor, .NET MAUI, and more.”
It also offers enhanced AI and cloud-native capabilities, that help to set its position for a future-ready framework. With an early roll out of the preview, developers can analyze how the existing codes translates to new runtimes and also help them analyze the new features and language.
Let’s dive deeper into the blog and take a look at how .NET evolved, what’s new in the updated version, and benefits it offers to the developers.
Recap: .NET 9 and its Overview
.NET 9, a successor to .NET 8, had its major focus on performance and cloud-native applications. It also had a set of new features like LINQ methods, changes to API documentation, and a new caching library. Other major enhancements included:
1. Performance Optimization: It offered faster Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation and garbage collection.
2. AI and Cloud Integration: Offered improved support for Azure and AI-based workload.
3. ASP.NET Core Upgrade: Offered enhanced OpenAPI support with a better WebAssembly performance.
4. Improved Cross-Platform Development: Updated to .NET MAUI for mobile and desktop apps.
5. Security Improvements: It offered improved encryption methods and better certificate management.
What’s Latest in .NET 10?
There are several improvements in the features and other areas that makes it more developer-friendly and the best release for the experts.
1. Improved RunTime and Performance
Runtime is the major focus and key to application performance to the release cycle.It focuses on reducing the abstraction overhead of popular language features. To reduce the abstraction, JIT’s ability to devirtualize array has been implemented which allows JIT to optimize code that loops over an array, no matter even if the virtual calls are involved. With a more efficient Just-In-Time engine (JIT) in the runtime helps make the code fast, as .NET supports multiple processor architectures, like Arm64.
It also offers stack allocation of small arrays that reduces the memory allocation and improves overall performance. At the same time, there is a support from AVX10.2 that improves computational speed for the applications relying on vector operations.
2. Improved .NET Libraries
The .NET 10 libraries supports FindBy Thumbprint that helps finding certificates with ease and supports hash algorithms beyond SHA-1 and offers cryptographic security. It also offers ZIPArchive (compression) that reduces the memory consumption, faster operation for files while making it more suitable for applications that have a larger database.
Additionally, with string normalization helps better working with text processing. Enhancements in TimeSpan and Data Handling offers more intuitive and simplified methods for working with time-based calculations and offers developers a seamless experience to handle date and time operations.
3. C# 14 and Language Enhancements
Though C# 14 is a robust and developer-friendly application, with .NET 10 it offers more refinement and aims to improve code clarity and ultimately developer’s productivity. With nameof in unbound generics offers more readability and maintainability while making generic programming simpler and more intuitive.
Also there is implicit span conversion that improves the safety while working with memory spans and reduces allocations that are not required. Modifiers on simple lambda parameters allows usage of ref, in, and out, that gives developers the flexibility needed to work with function pointers and optimizing memory usage.
4. ASP.NET Core & Blazor Updates
It is another latest update especially for the web developers. It is aimed to improve the efficiency and security of the web services. With OpenAPI 3.1 support it helps in the documentation improvement with a better YAML formatting. This way developers can work with API specifications in a better way.
Moreover, Blazor’s has QuickGrid component to support RowClass, that helps with better UI styling and customization. Another significant enhancement is local URL detection, which strengthens security by identifying whether a URL is local, helping prevent security vulnerabilities related to external link handling.
5. .NET MAUI and Cross-Platform Development
.NET MAUI, the cross-platform UI framework, receives substantial updates in .NET 10, making it more stable and efficient. Bug fixes and performance enhancements across Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS ensure smoother app development and execution. Blazor WebAssembly improvements enhance client-side efficiency, reducing load times and improving rendering speed. These enhancements contribute to making .NET MAUI a more reliable and performant solution for cross-platform application development, allowing developers to build seamless user experiences across different devices.
6. Entity Framework Core Enhancement
Entity Framework Core in .NET offers improvements in the database operations. With the LINQ LeftJoin operator, queries can be simplified and developers can write efficient and readable code.
There is ExecuteUpdateAsync that supports non-expression lambdas, while offering more flexibility for updating database records asynchronously. These improvements help streamline database interactions and improves the overall performance of the applications.
A Quick Comparison Between .NET 10 and .NET 9
| Feature | .NET 9 | .NET 10 |
| Performance | Improved JIT, better memory allocation | AVX10.2 support, devirtualization, stack allocation of arrays |
| AI & Cloud | AI model integrations, enhanced cloud-native tools | Even better AI integration, lighter containers |
| C# Version | C# 13 | C# 14 with improved span handling and lambdas |
| ASP.NET | Faster Blazor, better API documentation | OpenAPI 3.1, better Blazor components |
| Entity Framework | Basic LINQ improvements | LeftJoin, better async operations |
Final Thoughts
.NET 10 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting releases for developers, with improved performance, better AI and cloud integrations, and more efficient coding features. Whether you’re building enterprise apps, AI-powered solutions, or cloud-native services, .NET 10 is a future-proof framework that delivers powerful new capabilities.
With Microsoft’s commitment to continuous innovation, .NET 10 ensures a smoother, faster, and more secure development experience. Are you ready to explore the next evolution of .NET? Try the preview today and experience the difference!
