What's New for Developers: Migrating to .NET 10 with ArcGIS Pro 3.7
With the upcoming release of ArcGIS Pro 3.7, the ArcGIS Pro SDK is making the move to .NET 10, Microsoft's latest Long Term Support (LTS) release.
The most important thing to know is that your existing Add-ins built for Pro 3.0–3.6 will continue to run on 3.7 without re-compilation. However, to leverage the latest features and ensure future-proofing, we recommend upgrading your development environment.
Important Change: Drag-and-Drop and Clipboard Security
Starting with .NET 9 and continuing in .NET 10, Microsoft has removed support for the BinaryFormatter due to security vulnerabilities. This affects both drag-and-drop operations and clipboard interactions.
What this means for you: If your Add-in interacts with the clipboard (copy/paste) or handles drag-and-drop between add-ins, dockpanes, and the Catalog view, you must now use XML serialization instead of binary formats.
Note: Inter-application drag/drop from the map or layout TOC to an add-in is not affected by this change.
In Pro 3.7+, dropInfo.Data will return a string (XML) rather than a list of objects. You will need to deserialize this string into ClipboardItem[] to access the data.
The Compatibility Breakdown
If your Add-in... Your Action Item
| Does NOT use custom Drag-and-Drop or Clipboard | Do nothing. Add-ins built for 3.0–3.6 will continue to run on 3.7 without re-compilation. |
| Uses Drag-and-Drop or Clipboard interactions | Update required. Due to security changes in .NET 10, you must re-compile using the new XML pattern. |
| Needs new 3.7 SDK features | Re-compile. Update your environment to target .NET 10 to access new APIs. |
Environment Requirements
Before you recompile, make sure your development environment is ready:
- Upgrade to Visual Studio 18.4.1 or later (Visual Studio 2026), with .NET 10 included in the installation.
- Upgrade the Esri.ArcGISPro.Extensions NuGet package to version 3.7 or later.
- If you use Microsoft.Windows.Compatibility, update it to 10.0.5 or later.
- Audit any other NuGet packages for .NET 10 compatibility.
Coming from 2.x / .NET Framework? There's an extra step before any of the above applies — you'll need to follow the ProConcepts 3.0 Migration Guide to convert your project to a 3.x add-in first.
CoreHost & Forward Compatibility
For those building standalone CoreHost applications, Pro 3.7 requires .NET 10. To maintain forward compatibility across the 3.x lifecycle without constant recompilation, consider:
- Using Assembly Resolving at runtime (set Copy Local to 'No' on ArcGIS.Core.dll and ArcGIS.CoreHost.dll, and register a runtime assembly resolver).
- Invoking your application via dotnet exec with the --fx-version flag (the preferred option) or --roll-forward for more flexible version targeting.
Test Your Tools: Join the Pro EAC
Want to verify your Add-ins before launch day? We invite you to join the ArcGIS Pro Early Adopter Program (EAC). Get early builds of 3.7, test your existing tools, and provide direct feedback to the SDK team.
Sign up for the ArcGIS Pro Early Adopter Program here.
