BitmapImage will play GIF animation in an UWP app when TargetDeviceFamily is UNIVERSAL but not DESKTOP?

Question

Just spent hours trying to understand why my GIFs stopped playing, until I realized that I had changed the target in Package.appxmanifest from

<TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Universal" MinVersion="10.0.0.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.0.0" />

to

<TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Desktop" MinVersion="10.0.0.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.0.0" />

I am building a desktop-only app... No warning during code execution was given, nothing that would have led me to discover the impact of that change.. Why, oh why?

So what is the correct way to declare the TargetDeviceFamily for a desktop-only UWP app???

Holy Mother am I annoyed...

Answer 1

this is solution for you i had tested in windows 10.0.15063 sdk follow this steps :

1)

<TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Desktop" MinVersion="10.0.15063.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.15063.0" />

2) Then goto Reference and right click on it and then click on "Add refernece".

3) Then in Extensions add respective uwp desktop extension (as shown in screenshot).

4) Now Build and Debug your "gif" will be start animating.

:)