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

Question

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 1

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

Answer 2

MIME Type                       Extension

application/manifest            .manifest
application/x-ms-xbap           .xbap
application/octet-stream        .deploy
application/x-ms-application    .application
application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument  .xps
application/xaml+xml            .xaml

Maybe it is related with the file extentsions?