How can I get my XBAP to run in my browser instead of downloading it on Windows 7?

wpf firefox google-chrome windows-7 xbap
Rachel picture Rachel · Sep 7, 2011 · Viewed 25.6k times · Source

On my old XP computer, running an XBAP from Visual Studio would open it up in Google Chrome. I switched to Windows 7, and now running an XBAP downloads the file like it were a ZIP or an EXE instead of opening it in the browser. The same thing happens in FireFox.

Does anyone know why I am suddenly downloading the file instead of opening it? And how I can fix it?

And yes, I know XBAPs are not meant to run on Chrome, but if you copy a bunch of FireFox dlls to the Google\Chrome\Application directory it runs just fine (steps here if anyone wants).

Even before I had that setup, it would still try and open an xbap in chrome and I could copy the URL to IE for testing. Now it downloads the file so I can't even do that.

Answer

Rachel picture Rachel · Sep 7, 2011

Got it... Firefox (and Chrome, since I'm using FF dlls to run XBAPs in Chrome) runs XBAPs by using a dll from the .Net 3.5 Installer, and since Windows 7 comes with 3.5 already installed, this dll isn't available

To fix this, I needed to copy the file

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Windows Presentation Foundation\NPWPF.dll

from an XP machine to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\plugins

(if FireFox folder doesn't exist, create it)

Also in case you're looking to do the same, I think this was the link I used to figure out what FF files I needed to copy to Chrome's installation directory:

The following libraries found in Mozilla Firefox instalation directory C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox have to be coppied to Chrome installation directory:

  • js3250.dll
  • mozcrt19.dll
  • nspr4.dll
  • nss3.dll
  • nssutil3.dll
  • plc4.dll
  • plds4.dll
  • smime3.dll
  • sqlite3.dll
  • ssl3.dll
  • xpcom.dll
  • xul.dll

Assumming Chrome is installed in the following directory, USER corresponds to your windows user. C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application

Related questions

Embed Firefox/Gecko in WPF/C#

I want to embed the current Gecko in my WPF-Project. I know there is the possibility with the Winforms-Host and the Skybound-Gecko-Library. But I do not use the standard wpf-theme for my application. It is another and the scrollbar of …

Read More
Metadata file '.dll' could not be found

I am working on a WPF, C# 3.0 project, and I get this error: Error 1 Metadata file 'WORK=- \Tools\VersionManagementSystem\BusinessLogicLayer\bin\Debug \BusinessLogicLayer.dll' could not be found C:\-=WORK=- \Tools \VersionManagementSystem\VersionManagementSystem\CSC VersionManagementSystem This is …

Read More
Binding a WPF ComboBox to a custom list

I have a ComboBox that doesn't seem to update the SelectedItem/SelectedValue. The ComboBox ItemsSource is bound to a property on a ViewModel class that lists a bunch of RAS phonebook entries as a CollectionView. Then I've bound (at separate …

Read More