Remove unused .dll from WPF .net 5 Project

[Chris]

When using Telerik with .net 5 the output includes all the Telerik .dlls even the ones that are not used.  The output from a project containing an empty window is over 100mb. 

With .net framework there was a way to configure the project and only include the referenced assemblies.  Is there a way to do the same for a .net 5 project?

[Andrew]

I agree it's crazy that a basic app using one or two controls has over 100Mb of .dll's in the folder. There needs to be a way of removing the unused files (like you can with .NET Framework).

 

[Vesko]

Ni Andrew,

Can you please, provide more details about your project like:

1. What version of Visual Studio do you use to build your projects? If you use other tools to build, please, let us know which they are.
2. What Telerik references do you have in your project? Are they PackageReferences or regular ones. It will be really convenient if you provide your *.csproj/*.vbproj files to take a look or put here snippets with your references.

[Andrew]

I'm creating .NET 6 WPF app with VS 2022. With .NET 4.8 there was the ability to select which Telerik components are included with your project so you could manage the size of the app folder. With .NET 6 (and earlier versions I guess) it includes all the WPF controls. I have a 49kb application .dll but 132MB of your .dll's. That's pretty wasteful of space as I bet 99% of the .dll's are not really required.

[Vesko]

Hi Andrew,

I suppose that your projects have package references to some of our full NuGet packages like Telerik.UI.for.Wpf.60.Xaml. These packages contain all the assemblies which is the reason why you end up with all the controls in the bin folder. Until we provide an easy way to select the required assemblies in your projects you can manage your individual dependencies using our NuGet feed. There you will find the exact packages that you need like Telerik.Windows.Controls.Chart.for.Wpf.

Another approach is App Trimming which is an option to remove unused assemblies as part of publishing your application. Here is an article that may be useful regarding application trimming.

[Vesko]

Hello Chris,

The assemblies that are copied to your output folder generally depend on your build environment. In order to address your concern, please, provide the following details:

• What version of Visual Studio do you use to build your projects? If you use other tools to build, please, let us know which they are.
• What Telerik references do you have in your project? Are they PackageReferences or regular ones. It will be really convenient if you provide your *.csproj/*.vbproj files to take a look or put here snippets with your references.

Currently, we do not provide project configuration functionality for .NET 5 similar to the one for .NET Framework. However, we plan to provide it in the near future. So at this time your best approach to manage your project dependencies is our NuGet feed. Alternatively, you can manage your references manually using your installation folders as hint paths.

Regards,
Vesko
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