I have been working with .NET since .NET Framework 3.5, and I have learned that staying ahead means adopting the right tools and practices at the right time. In this post, I want to share 10 actionable steps that will help you grow as a .NET developer in 2026.
These are practices I follow myself and recommend to every developer I work with.
Let's dive in.
1. Migrate Your Existing Projects to .NET 10
.NET 10 and C# 14 were released on November 11, 2025.
As a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, .NET 10 will receive three years of support until November 14, 2028. This makes it a solid choice for production applications that need long-term stability.
Here are the most amazing new features in this release:
C# 14:
- Extension Members
- Null-Conditional Assignment
- The Field Keyword
- Lambda Parameters with Modifiers
- Partial Constructors and Events
File-Based Apps:
- Starting with .NET 10, you can create a single *.cs file and run it directly, without solution file (sln) and project file (csproj).
ASP.NET Core:
- Validation Support in Minimal APIs
- JSON Patch Support in Minimal APIs
- Server-Sent Events (SSE)
- OpenAPI 3.1 Support
EF Core:
- Optional Complex Types
- JSON and struct Support for Complex Types
- LeftJoin and RightJoin Operators
- Named Query Filters
- ExecuteUpdate for JSON Columns
- Regular Lambdas in ExecuteUpdate
Here is a list of resources to help you migrate your existing projects to .NET 10:
- My in-depth article on the new features.
- Breaking changes in .NET 10
- How Migrate from ASP.NET Core in .NET 9 to ASP.NET Core in .NET 10
- .NET Upgrade Assistant
It's a good time to start migrating your projects to .NET 10 in 2026.
👉 Read the full article on my newsletter: https://antondevtips.com/blog/top-10-things-every-dotnet-developer-needs-to-do-in-2026
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