Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Client Support Policy

Last updated: December 13, 2023

Microsoft Support for WCF Client

Every Microsoft product has a lifecycle, including WCF Client. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it's no longer supported. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to upgrade or make other changes to your software. This product is governed by the Microsoft Modern Lifecycle.

WCF Client is the .NET version of WCF client libraries and enables applications built on .NET to communicate with WCF or CoreWCF services. It ships as a set of NuGet packages and is open sourced at the dotnet/wcf repository. Its support depends on the support status for the underlying .NET platforms it runs on.

Release cadence

Starting with .NET 8, WCF Client releases closely align with the .NET release cadence for Long Term Support (LTS) versions, that is, WCF Client 8.0 was released around the same time as .NET 8 and so on.

Release support details

The following table shows supported major versions, end of support dates, and additional details.

The following list shows the details of the support policy for WCF Client:

• WCF Client uses the Major.Minor versioning strategy.
• Breaking changes are limited to major versions of WCF Client, which will ship along with .NET LTS versions.
• New major versions may change (add or drop) the .NET runtime versions that are supported.
  • Dropping support for a .NET version that is still in support is considered a breaking change.
• A major version of WCF Client would be supported for as long as the underlying .NET major version is supported.
  • Since .NET LTS versions are supported one year after their successor .NET version ships, this means the same is true for WCF Client major versions as well.
• If a new major version drops support for a .NET runtime version currently in support, then the previous major will continue to be supported at the latest minor level for as long as the underlying .NET runtime remains in support.
  • For example, if WCF Client 8.0 drops support for .NET 6, then WCF Client 6.x (at the latest minor version) will continue to be supported for as long as .NET 6 is supported.
• WCF Client minor versions can be released at any time and don't include breaking changes, such as dropping support for a supported .NET version.
  • New minor version releases are API and behavior compatible with previous minor releases for the same major. For example, the 6.1 release will be API compatible with 6.0.
  • All minor releases will support the same .NET platforms as their major. For example, the 6.1 release supports the same .NET versions as the 6.0 release as long as the .NET versions are themselves still in support. For more information about the support lifecycle for the various .NET versions, see .NET and .NET Core Support Policy.
• Servicing releases can ship at any time for any supported Major.Minor version.
  • When new minor versions are released, then the previous release will be supported for 6 months from the date of the new release, provided the underlying .NET runtime dependency being used is also supported. For example, once WCF Client 6.1 has been available for 6 months, then WCF Client 6.0 will no longer be supported.
• Support will be primarily for the latest Major.Minor release of each supported major version. You need the latest patch update installed to qualify for support. Security fixes will be released for all supported versions. During the 6 months overlap period of the previous release and the new release, security releases will include both versions.

Supported packages

The following packages are supported:

• System.ServiceModel.Primitives
• System.ServiceModel.Http
• System.ServiceModel.NetTcp
• System.ServiceModel.Federation
• System.ServiceModel.NetFramingBase
• System.ServiceModel.NetNamedPipe
• System.ServiceModel.UnixDomainSocket (available for WCF Client 6.2 and later versions)
• System.Web.Services.Description