Last month, Microsoft released the .NET Framework January 2022 Cumulative Update Preview, part of the company's promise to support .NET Framework. The update targets .NET Framework versions 3.5 and 4.8 and focuses on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
The preview release aims to increase reliability and quality of the .NET Framework features for Windows OS.
From a reliability perspective this update fixes the CLR crash issues that are caused by the garbage collector in certain paths while trying to invoke shared-generic code from non-shared-generic code (this is a runtime+JIT feature aimed at reducing the amount of code the runtime generates for generic methods). This aims to provide more stable memory management and less memory leaks.
The updates address multiple issues regarding "hanging" when scrolling a list control where UseLayoutRounding is enabled and the item margin is not a multiple of the rounding quantum. (The quantum is a function of the DPI scaling in effect.)
Another important issue addresses an exception "Height must be non-negative" that can occur when adding items or groups to the collection displayed by an ItemsControl.
The last issue addressed is where a shared ContextMenu stops displaying after it fails to display once because its owner was removed from the visual tree.
The UI fixes within WPF will provide a more consistent experience while resizing the WPF application window as well as better support for different resolutions.
<StackPanel Width="150" Margin="7" Orientation="Horizontal">
<!-- Single pixel line with layout rounding turned OFF.-->
<Rectangle UseLayoutRounding="False"
Width="45.5" Margin="10" Height="1" Fill="Red"/>
<!-- Single pixel line with layout rounding turned ON.-->
<Rectangle UseLayoutRounding="True"
Width="45.5" Margin="10" Height="1" Fill="Red"/>
</StackPanel>
The release offers no new security improvements. This update is cumulative and contains all previously released security improvements.
The update will cover .NET Framework for Windows 10 and 11 as well Windows Server. For a detailed list of supported versions of the operating systems please check the release statement.
To get this update you will need to use either Windows Update, Windows Server Update Service, or Microsoft Update Catalog.
Microsoft continues to define the update to .NET Frameworks 3.5 and 4.x as a component of the OS and the update assumes the same lifecycle policy as the Windows version on which it is installed.
Interested readers can learn more on the Microsoft .NET blog.