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First Steps with Telerik UI for WinForms

Updated on Aug 21, 2026

This tutorial shows how to create your first Telerik UI for WinForms desktop application.

Prerequisites

To download Telerik UI for WinForms packages, you need a Telerik account. If you do not have, you can create one for free.
Install Visual Studio IDE with .NET desktop development workload.

Set Up Telerik Development Environment

The fastest way to set up your Telerik development environment is to use the Telerik CLI .NET tool. Run the following commands in your preferred command shell (Visual Studio Terminal, cmd, PowerShell, or other).

If you have already set up your Telerik development environment and it doesn't need updating, skip to Create a new WinForms Telerik Project.

Install Telerik CLI
```
dotnet tool install -g Telerik.CLI
```
Run the telerik setup winforms command
```
telerik setup winforms
```

The telerik setup winforms command performs multiple Telerik CLI setup steps at once to configure your Telerik development environment automatically:

✓ Creates your Telerik account or log in if you already have one.

✓ Activates a Telerik UI for WinForms trial if you don't have an active license.

✓ Downloads your Telerik license key file and saves telerik-license.txt to your operating system user's folder, making it available to all Telerik .NET apps on your machine.

✓ Configures the Telerik NuGet package source.

✓ Installs the Telerik MCP server for AI-powered coding assistance.

Now, your Telerik development environment is configured and ready to use!

Create new WinForms Telerik Project

In this step, create a basic Telerik WinForms project that you can use as a starting point for your application:

Open Visual Studio and select Create a new project in the start window.
Select the Telerik C# Windows Forms Application template, and click Next. This template creates a .NET project. If you want to create a .NET Framework project, select the Telerik C# Windows Forms Application (Net Framework) template instead.

Figure 1: Create a new Telerik WinForms project

Visual Studio project template picker showing the Telerik C# Windows Forms Application template

Telerik project templates are available in C# and VB for .NET and .NET Framework.

Download Telerik UI for WinForms Controls

Starting with Q3 2026, all Telerik UI for WPF NuGet packages will be available on NuGet.org. If you install packages from NuGet.org, you do not need to configure the Telerik NuGet server.

The easiest way to get Telerik UI for WinForms controls on your development machine is to install them with NuGet packages directly from NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio.

In Visual Studio, go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution.
Select the Telerik package source that you added in Step 3.
Search for Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls, and install the Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package.

Figure 3: Install the Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package

NuGet Package Manager showing the Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package selected for installation

You can include prerelease versions by selecting the Include prerelease checkbox.

After installation, the Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package appears under Packages in Solution Explorer:

Figure 4: Verify the installed Telerik package

Solution Explorer showing the installed Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package under Packages

Add a Telerik UI for WinForms Control to the RadForm

After you install Telerik UI for WinForms, the controls appear in the Visual Studio Toolbox. To add a Telerik component, drag it from the Toolbox and drop it onto the form designer surface.

Add RadGridView to the RadForm

For this example, let's add the RadGridView control. Search for RadGridView in the Toolbox, and then drag it to the form designer surface.

Figure 5: Add RadGridView from the Toolbox

Visual Studio Toolbox with RadGridView dragged onto the form designer surface

You can also add components programmatically:

C#
RadGridView radGridView1 = new RadGridView();
radGridView1.Columns.Add("Column1");
radGridView1.Columns.Add("Column2");
this.Controls.Add(radGridView1);
VB
Dim radGridView1 As New RadGridView()
radGridView1.Columns.Add("Column1")
radGridView1.Columns.Add("Column2")
Me.Controls.Add(radGridView1)