Add WinML EP Catalog CMake sample with NuGet package integration by nieubank · Pull Request #593 · microsoft/WindowsAppSDK-Samples

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) · 2026-02-07T00:02:20Z

Adds a CMake-based C++ sample demonstrating the WinML Execution Provider Catalog C API (WinMLEpCatalog*) for discovering and registering hardware-accelerated ML execution providers with ONNX Runtime.

What the sample shows:

Creating an EP catalog and enumerating registered execution providers
Inspecting provider metadata (name, version, certification status)
Preparing certified providers with WinMLEpEnsureReady and registering them with Ort::Env
Consuming the Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.ML NuGet package from CMake with automatic .nupkg extraction at configure time
Deploying runtime DLLs via TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS and an explicit WINML_DIRECTML_DLL copy for DirectML (which has no import library)

Build setup:

CMake 3.21+ with a single nuget preset; supports both Ninja and Visual Studio generators
build.ps1 helper script handles VS developer environment setup, prerequisite checks, and NuGet package resolution
The NuGet package is extracted directly by CMake's file(ARCHIVE_EXTRACT)

Validation:

Run .\build.ps1 from WinMLEpCatalog sample directory in PowerShell
Run output file \out\build\nuget\WinMLEpCatalogSample.exe
Example Output:

Windows ML Execution Provider Catalog Sample

Provider: OpenVINOExecutionProvider
  Library: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MicrosoftCorporationII.WinML.Intel.OpenVINO.EP.1.8_1.8.69.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\ExecutionProvider\onnxruntime_providers_openvino_plugin.dll
  Registered!

Provider: NvTensorRTRTXExecutionProvider
  Library: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MicrosoftCorporationII.WinML.NVIDIA.TRT-RTX.EP.1.8_1.8.24.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\ExecutionProvider\onnxruntime_providers_nv_tensorrt_rtx.dll
  Registered!

Available EP devices (8):
  - CPUExecutionProvider
  - DmlExecutionProvider
  - DmlExecutionProvider
  - OpenVINOExecutionProvider
  - OpenVINOExecutionProvider
  - OpenVINOExecutionProvider.AUTO
  - OpenVINOExecutionProvider.AUTO
  - NvTensorRTRTXExecutionProvider

Registered 2 certified provider(s).

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T16:51:14Z

+
+function Write-ErrorMessage {
+    param([string]$Message)
+    Write-Host "[ERROR] $Message" -ForegroundColor Red


Suggested change

Write-Host "[ERROR] $Message" -ForegroundColor Red

Write-Error $Message

Send this to the error stream? Maybe get rid of this function and call Write-Error directly.

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T16:54:47Z

+# Local NuGet package configuration
+set(WINML_NUGET_PACKAGE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.ML.2.0.246-experimental.nupkg"
+    CACHE FILEPATH "Path to Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.ML nupkg")
+set(WINML_LOCAL_PACKAGES_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/local_packages"


Consider extracting somewhere under the CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR or CMAKE_BINARY_DIR so that the source tree isn't touched.

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T17:00:18Z

+if(NOT DEFINED microsoft.windows.ai.machinelearning_DIR)
+    if(EXISTS "${WINML_NUGET_PACKAGE}")
+        get_filename_component(_winml_nupkg_filename "${WINML_NUGET_PACKAGE}" NAME)
+        string(REGEX REPLACE "\\.nupkg$" "" _winml_nupkg_name "${_winml_nupkg_filename}")


cmake_path(GET WINML_NUGET_PACKAGE STEM _winml_nupkg_filename) looks like it will handle getting just the filename without the extension. get_filename_component was superseded by the cmake_path() in 3.20 too.

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T17:02:38Z

+    if(EXISTS "${WINML_NUGET_PACKAGE}")
+        get_filename_component(_winml_nupkg_filename "${WINML_NUGET_PACKAGE}" NAME)
+        string(REGEX REPLACE "\\.nupkg$" "" _winml_nupkg_name "${_winml_nupkg_filename}")
+        set(_winml_extract_dir "${WINML_LOCAL_PACKAGES_DIR}/${_winml_nupkg_name}")


These two could use cmake_Path(APPEND ...) to construct instead of string concatenation.

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T17:09:19Z

+    if (FAILED(hr))
+    {
+        std::cout << "  Failed to get library path\n\n";
+        return TRUE;
+    }
+    libraryPathUtf8.resize(used > 0 ? used - 1 : 0);


Suggested change

if (FAILED(hr))

{

std::cout << " Failed to get library path\n\n";

return TRUE;

}

libraryPathUtf8.resize(used > 0 ? used - 1 : 0);

if (FAILED(hr) || used == 0)

{

std::cout << " Failed to get library path\n\n";

return TRUE;

}

libraryPathUtf8.resize(used - 1);

Minor: symmetry with the error check above and simplifies the resize call

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T17:11:19Z

+            }
+        }
+
+        WinMLEpCatalogRelease(catalog);


Can the catalog be released after the enumeration is done?

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) · 2026-02-19T17:12:19Z

+
+        std::cout << std::format("\nRegistered {} certified provider(s).\n", ctx.registeredProviders.size());
+
+        // Unregister providers before env goes out of scope


A bit more explanation about why this is needed would be helpful.
env is a C++ object, so I would expect it to automatically clean itself up.

Adds a standalone CMake sample that demonstrates the WinMLEpCatalog C API for discovering and registering certified execution providers with ONNX Runtime. The build automatically restores the Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.ML NuGet package during CMake configure via nuget install. A local .nupkg in the sample directory is used preferentially (for alternative version testing). All required runtime DLLs (onnxruntime.dll, onnxruntime_providers_shared.dll, DirectML.dll, Microsoft.Windows.AI.MachineLearning.dll) are copied to the output directory. The package version is controlled by a single WINML_NUGET_VERSION cache variable (default: 1.8.2141).

Ryan Solorzano (rsolorzanomsft) · 2026-03-20T17:06:03Z

+}
+
+if ($Generator -eq 'VisualStudio') {
+    $configureArgs += @('-G', 'Visual Studio 17 2022', '-A', $Platform)


So this only works for VS 2022? If so, I would update the above error message to remove 'or later'.

Import the CMake WinML C API sample introduced by main PR #593 and moved and stabilized by PR #643. Record its independent build boundary, provenance, and x64 validation in the reconciliation docs and matrix. Source-commit: 64eee70 Source-commit: f37e15e Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) changed the title ~~Add Windows ML EP Catalog Sample with CMake and vcpkg integration~~ Add WinML EP Catalog CMake sample with NuGet package integration Feb 18, 2026

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) reviewed Feb 19, 2026

View reviewed changes

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) force-pushed the user/nieubank/winmlepcatalog_vcpkg branch from ab023f5 to 94d7a15 Compare March 17, 2026 19:18

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) changed the base branch from release/experimental to main March 17, 2026 19:24

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) marked this pull request as ready for review March 19, 2026 18:45

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) force-pushed the user/nieubank/winmlepcatalog_vcpkg branch from 94d7a15 to 4576881 Compare March 20, 2026 15:46

Ryan Solorzano (rsolorzanomsft) approved these changes Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

adrastogi approved these changes Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

Enable auto-detect of VS version

49da731

adrastogi approved these changes Mar 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) merged commit 64eee70 into main Mar 21, 2026
4 checks passed

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) deleted the user/nieubank/winmlepcatalog_vcpkg branch March 21, 2026 12:25

shisan (qiutongMS) mentioned this pull request Aug 25, 2026

Reconcile stable main changes with release/experimental #660

Closed

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Add WinML EP Catalog CMake sample with NuGet package integration - #593

Add WinML EP Catalog CMake sample with NuGet package integration#593
Nick Eubanks (nieubank) merged 2 commits into
mainfrom
user/nieubank/winmlepcatalog_vcpkg

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) commented Feb 7, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Christopher Warrington (chwarr) Feb 19, 2026

Uh oh!

Ryan Solorzano (rsolorzanomsft) Mar 20, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Uh oh!

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

	Write-Host "[ERROR] $Message" -ForegroundColor Red
	Write-Error $Message


		std::cout << std::format("\nRegistered {} certified provider(s).\n", ctx.registeredProviders.size());

		// Unregister providers before env goes out of scope

Conversation

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) commented Feb 7, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Uh oh!

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

Nick Eubanks (nieubank) commented Feb 7, 2026 •

edited

Loading