# Windows Presentation Foundation WPF is a successor to Windows Forms released in 2006 with .NET Framework 3.0. It is slowly getting phased out in favor of more modern solutions. ^n8let6 > Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a free and open-source graphical subsystem (similar to WinForms) originally developed by Microsoft for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF, previously known as "Avalon", was initially released as part of .NET Framework 3.0 in 2006. WPF uses DirectX and attempts to provide a consistent programming model for building applications. > > [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows%20Presentation%20Foundation) For advice on how to improving WPF performance see [[Advice for Improving WPF Performance]].