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Use tooling to help migrate ASP.NET Framework to ASP.NET Core

This article shows how to upgrade ASP.NET Framework applications (MVC, Web API, and Web Forms) to ASP.NET Core using the Visual Studio .NET Upgrade Assistant and the incremental update approach.

Warning

There is a Copilot-enabled tool for staying current on modern .NET, but is not currently enabled for migrating ASP.NET Framework to ASP.NET Core. Please see the documentation for GitHub Copilot app modernization - Upgrade for .NET for details.

Prerequisites

If your .NET Framework project has supporting libraries in the solution that are required, they should be upgraded to .NET Standard 2.0, if possible. For more information, see Upgrade supporting libraries.

  1. Install the .NET Upgrade Assistant Visual Studio extension.

  2. Open your ASP.NET Framework solution in Visual Studio.

  3. In Solution Explorer, right click on the project to upgrade and select Upgrade. Select Side-by-side incremental project upgrade, which is the only upgrade option.

  4. For the upgrade target, select New project.

  5. Name the project and select the most appropriate template. If your solution includes multiple project types, you may add the required services later:

    Note

    For MVC projects: Select ASP.NET Core MVC template.

    For Web API projects: Select ASP.NET Core Web API template.

    For MVC + Web API projects: Select ASP.NET Core MVC template.

    For Web Forms projects: Select ASP.NET Core template.

  6. Select Next

  7. Select the target framework version and then select Next. For more information, see .NET and .NET Core Support Policy.

    Note

    For Web Forms projects: Select Done instead of Next, then proceed to step 9.

  8. Review the Summary of changes, then select Finish.

  9. The Summary step displays <Framework Project> is now connected to <Framework ProjectCore> via Yarp proxy.

    Note

    For MVC and Web API projects: The summary includes a pie chart showing the migrated endpoints. Select Upgrade Controller and then select a controller to upgrade. Select the component to upgrade, then select Upgrade selection.