.NET 11 Release Candidate 1

> This issue is a locked mirror of https://github.com/dotnet/core/discussions/10569. See that thread for discussion.

We are pleased to announce the release of .NET 11 Release Candidate 1. Follow the main announcement and [blog announcement](https://aka.ms/dotnet/11/rc1).

This is our first of two release candidates which come with a [go-live support license](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/platform/support/policy/dotnet-core#previews) so you can confidently use this release for your production applications. This release of .NET 11 is supported in the new [Visual Studio 2026 Insiders](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/insiders/) release alongside Visual Studio Code with the C# Dev Kit. Check out the full release notes below and get started today.

This release contains the following highlights and improvements.

Browse the release notes for a full list of improvements in this release:

- [.NET MAUI](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/dotnetmaui.md)
- [ASP.NET Core](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/aspnetcore.md)
- [C#](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/csharp.md)
- [F#](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/fsharp.md)
- [Container images](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/containers.md)
- [EF Core & Data](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/efcore.md)
- [Libraries](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/libraries.md)
- [MSBuild](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/msbuild.md)
- [NuGet](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/nuget.md)
- [Runtime](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/runtime.md)
- [SDK](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/sdk.md)
- [Windows Forms](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/11.0/preview/rc1/winforms.md)

## Get started

To get started with .NET 11, [install the .NET 11 SDK](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/11.0).

If you're on Windows using Visual Studio, we recommend installing the latest [Visual Studio 2026 Insiders](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/insiders/). You can also use Visual Studio Code and the [C# Dev Kit](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-dotnettools.csdevkit) extension with .NET 11.

This is a locked mirror of the discussion at github.com/dotnet/core/discussions/10569, not an implementation task. Read that discussion and the linked .NET 11 RC1 release notes to understand the announcement; there is no contribution scope or completion criterion stated here.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.