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First Steps with Telerik UI for WPF

Updated on Jul 9, 2026

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure to:

Install Visual Studio with the .NET desktop development workload.
Install .NET 8.0 SDK or later.

Set Up Telerik Development Environment

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

The fastest way to set up your Telerik development environment is to use the Telerik CLI .NET tool commands in a command shell (cmd, powershell, etc.).

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

The setup command performs multiple actions at once to configure your Telerik development environment - login, license key installation, nuget package source configuration and mcp server setup.

Create the WPF Project

Create a new WPF project in Visual Studio.

Select File > New > Project.
Choose the WPF Application template.
Enter the project details, like project name and directory location, and click Create.

Install Telerik Packages in the Project

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.

Right-click on the project name in Visual Studio and select Manage NuGet Packages.
Open the Browse tab.
In the Package source drop down menu on the right, make sure to select the Telerik nuget package source or the All option.

Search for Telerik.UI.for.Wpf.AllControls.Xaml and install it in the project.

<PackageReference Include="Telerik.UI.for.Wpf.AllControls.Xaml" Version="*" />

This tutorial shows how to install the Telerik.UI.for.Wpf.AllControls.Xaml package that contains all Telerik WPF assemblies. To reduce the final application size, you can install only the required separate packages. For example, this demo only requires the Telerik.Windows.Controls.Navigation.Xaml package.

Add Telerik Controls in the Project

Open the MainWindow.xaml file.

Add the telerik schema in XAML.

xaml

xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"

Add a Telerik control. For this example, we'll use RadTabControl.

xaml

<Window x:Class="TelerikWpfApplication.MainWindow"
		xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
		xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
		xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
		xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
		xmlns:local="clr-namespace:TelerikWpfApplication" 
		xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"
		mc:Ignorable="d"
		Title="MainWindow"
		Height="450"
		Width="800">
	<Grid>
		<telerik:RadTabControl>
			<telerik:RadTabItem Header="Home" />
			<telerik:RadTabItem Header="Insert" />
			<telerik:RadTabItem Header="View" />
		</telerik:RadTabControl>
	</Grid>
</Window>

(optional) Open the MainWindow.xaml.cs and set the Telerik theme. This tutorial uses the XAML version of the Telerik dlls, so we need to use StyleManager for the theme setting.

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
	public MainWindow()
	{
		StyleManager.ApplicationTheme = new Windows11Theme();
		this.InitializeComponent();
	}
}

Build and run the project.

Telerik UI for WPF comes with two sets of dlls, named Xaml and NoXaml. This tutorial was created with the Xaml dlls set in mind. Read more about this in the Xaml vs. NoXaml article.