Microsoft has officially announced the release of .NET 11 Preview 1, offering developers an early look at the next evolution of the cross-platform development platform. This preview introduces improvements across the runtime, SDK, libraries, C# language features, cloud development tools, and UI frameworks such as ASP.NET Core, Blazor, and .NET MAUI. As the first preview in the .NET 11 cycle, it focuses heavily on performance optimization, modern development workflows, and expanded platform support.
One of the most notable updates comes from the runtime and core libraries. Developers gain built-in support for Zstandard compression, improved ZIP archive handling, and enhanced time zone functionality. The introduction of the BFloat16 floating-point type enables more efficient AI and high-performance computing scenarios. Improvements to Unicode handling through expanded Rune support and new cryptographic verification APIs further strengthen performance and security capabilities.
Performance and platform compatibility are also key priorities. Enhancements to asynchronous runtime behavior, JIT and garbage collection optimizations, and expanded WebAssembly capabilities improve efficiency across cloud, desktop, and browser environments. Additional architecture support, including RISC-V and s390x, signals continued expansion into enterprise and specialized hardware ecosystems.
The .NET SDK and developer tooling experience receive meaningful upgrades. New CLI improvements include interactive target selection for dotnet run, positional arguments for dotnet test, and enhanced Hot Reload via dotnet watch. These updates streamline testing and debugging workflows while improving productivity for continuous development cycles.
Web and UI development frameworks also see incremental enhancements. ASP.NET Core and Blazor introduce new components and improved navigation and SignalR configuration options, while QuickGrid gains row click event support for richer data interaction. Blazor WebAssembly now supports hosted services, expanding client-side background task scenarios. In .NET MAUI, XAML source generation is enabled by default, improving build performance and maintainability, and Android now uses CoreCLR by default for improved runtime consistency.
Overall, .NET 11 Preview 1 demonstrates Microsoft’s continued focus on performance, cloud-native development, AI readiness, and cross-platform flexibility. While preview releases are not intended for production environments, they provide valuable insight into the future direction of the .NET ecosystem and allow developers to prepare their applications for upcoming changes.