Forum Discussion

CodeDJ's avatar
CodeDJ
Iron Contributor
Apr 08, 2019

ClickOnce application downloads instead of directly opening the app

When opening a ClickOnce app, the *.application file gets saved to my Downloads folder instead of directly opening it. Additionally, since the file is downloaded, then opened from Downloads, it loses...
Eric_Lawrence's avatar
Eric_Lawrence
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Nov 20, 2019
1. Yes, the new Edge will start replacing the old Edge on Windows PCs next year.
2. ClickOnce is presently disabled by default.
3. ClickOnce support can be enabled via edge://flags and Group Policy. There's no option in edge://settings.
4. A screenshot and/or OS information should be helpful here. File associations are owned by Windows, not the browser. If you save a .application file to your desktop and open it on the machine in question, what happens?
William_Booth's avatar
William_Booth
Copper Contributor
Jan 28, 2020
Eric_Lawrence wrote:
4. A screenshot and/or OS information should be helpful here. File associations are owned by Windows, not the browser. If you save a .application file to your desktop and open it on the machine in question, what happens?

Per 4), in Version 80.0.361.40 (Official build) beta (64-bit) on Windows 10 Pro (1903) (64-bit), upon accessing a ClickOnce URL for the first time, the user is prompted to either open the file or cancel (as expected), but when the user clicks Open, a system app chooser is displayed and the user is forced to choose Edge to open the file, rather than Edge simply handing off to dfshim.dll or VSTOInstaller and letting ClickOnce do its thing.  After associating .application and .vsto manifests with Edge (selecting "Always use this app" is not necessary), the user is never subsequently prompted to choose applications.  The system's file association for these types is not altered, nor is it set to Edge, so this is not on the OS.  On Windows, it should be Edge's responsibility to provide the manifest URLs directly to the handler for each MIME type, and an appropriate association should not need to be established by the user.

Windows 10 Default App Chooser

Thanks,

William

Resources