Microsoft has released an Upgrade Assistant tool in Visual Studio to help developers migrate their .NET Framework applications to .NET 5. The tool analyzes existing projects and provides guidance on how to upgrade, automating many of the tedious and error-prone tasks that come with upgrading.

The Upgrade Assistant tool provides a detailed report on what needs to be fixed or updated, along with recommended steps for each issue. The tool can also generate a project file that can be used to build the upgraded application. This file includes all the necessary NuGet packages and settings needed to build the new version.

In addition to the Upgrade Assistant tool, Microsoft has also released a Compatibility Analyzer tool. This tool scans code and highlights potential compatibility issues that may arise during an upgrade. The Compatibility Analyzer can help identify areas where code may need to be modified to ensure compatibility with .NET 5.

The upgrade tool aims to support all .NET project types, with a focus on enabling a seamless upgrade experience not only from .NET Framework to .NET 6/7 but also for future .NET versions. In addition to changing the target framework version, the tool is designed to address any breaking changes in the code.

As of the latest version, the tool supports ASP.NET, Class libraries, Console, WPF, and WinForms workloads, which is in line with the features of the Upgrade Assistant CLI tool. The tool is currently being developed to support additional migration types, including Xamarin to .NET MAUI migration, UWP to WinUI migration, and WCF to WCF Core migration.

Although the tool can upgrade these project types, the code fixers for these types are not yet available. In the meantime, users can migrate these project types using the existing Upgrade Assistant command-line tool, which comes with code fixers. The Visual Studio extension will be updated with the code fixers soon.

Overall, the Upgrade Assistant and Compatibility Analyzer tools make it easier for developers to upgrade their .NET Framework applications to .NET 5. By automating many of the tedious and error-prone tasks involved in upgrading, developers can save time and avoid potential issues that may arise during the process.