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Library requirements

System requirements​

Check if the computer configuration meets the requirements

  • .NET framework v. 4.8 / 10.0 or newer installed. For older .NET version see .NET compatibility
  • DirectX11 compatible graphics hardware and operating system is recommended, although DirectX 9.0c (shader model 3) level graphics adapter maybe be sufficient for some use cases.
  • Windows 11 is recommended, but see note on other Windows OS.
  • Visual Studio for development, but not required for deployment. See note on Visual Studio version.

.NET compatibility​

While upgrading LightningChart .NET library target, library follows .NET and .NET Core Support Policy.

The latest version of LightningChart .NET library is build targeting .NET Framework 4.8 and .NET 10.0. However, earlier versions LightningChart .NET library use older .NET version. Therefore, it is possible to use LightingChart even in application targeting .NET Framework 4.0, BUT its is not recommended as legacy packages are not supported.

LightningChart Version.NET Framework Target.NET (Core) Target
12.6.1.NET Framework 4.8.NET 10.0
12.5.1 to 12.2.1.NET Framework 4.8.NET 8.0
12.1.1 to 11.0.1.NET Framework 4.8.NET 6.0
10.5.1.NET Framework 4.6.2-
10.4.1 to 10.2.1.NET Framework 4.5.2-
10.1.2 to 10.1.2.NET Framework 4.5-
10.1.1 to 8.0.0.NET Framework 4.0-
Note

Project's (where library will be used) build target framework should be the same as library's or higher. For example, DLLs targeting .NET 6.0 can be used in application, which targets .NET 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 etc.

warning

.NET application can use libraries build for .NET Framework as well as .NET (Core). When using the .NET Framework targeting library in .NET (Core) application, Visual Studio may give a warning about installed package using different target, especially when using NuGet packages. However, this does not prevent the application from working. In these cases, the warning can be suppressed or just ignored.

Windows OS​

Latest Microsoft Windows operating system is recommended. However, if system support DirectX 9.0c (shader model 3) level graphics adapter or newer, then LightningChart .NET component can be used. Therefore, earlier versions of Windows OS (like 10, 8, 7 and even Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 R2) can be used with limitations.

tip

The summary of .NET Framework version history and correlation of each version with Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows Server can be found in following document.

tip

.NET Core (and the modern unified .NET 5 through .NET 10) shifted away from being an operating system component tied to Windows. Therefore, its dependency and support structure works completely differently from the old .NET Framework. See .NET Supported OS Policy.

For rendering without graphics hardware (WARP software rendering), DirectX11 compatible operating system is required.

Windows IoT also satisfy DirectX and .NET framework requirements (see Creating app for ARM-device).

Visual Studio​

Latest Visual Studio (2026) is recommended. However, some very early versions of LightningChart .NET component may be compatible even with Visual Studio 2010.

note

For several latest LightningChart versions at least Visual Studio 2022 is required, because .NET Framework 4.6 and above is used. At least Visual Studio 2022 is required for .NET (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) projects.

More information how each Visual Studio version support .NET Development can be found in following pages: VS 2026, VS 2022 etc.

Visual Studio Toolbox​

Warning

Currently Visual Studio (2022 or 2026) does not support Controls/Toolbox Deployment through DLL-reference for .NET (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) projects. Therefore, LightningChart .NET 6.0/8.0/10.0 controls cannot be installed the same way as for .NET Framework and LightningChart controls will not appear in Visual Studio toolbox in .NET Core 3.x, .NET 5, .NET 6, .NET 7, .NET 8, .NET 9 or .NET 10 projects.

This is not LightningChart specific, and will effect any custom-control. Probably Microsoft Visual Studio dev. team will fix it in the future. However, this limitation does not prevent LightningChart control usage - user just need to add references manually and create chart in the code.

Tip

For an example how chart could be created and configured in the code see here.

Dependencies​

LightningChart is mostly self-contained package. There are only few dependencies, which should be added in few specific projects.

If DLLs used in the project was build targeting for .NET Framework 4.8 (e.g. LightningChart.WinForms.Charting.NET4.dll or LightningChart.WPF.Charting.NET4.dll), then System.Text.Json (10.0.2) and its dependencies will be automatically added in the project (output folder).