How to open ClickOnce deployment manifest .application files
Have you had trouble opening the application file on your computer? What are application files? We explain what they are and recommend software that we know will open them.
What is application file?
Files with application extension are special app installers deployed with Microsoft’s ClickOnce technology. ClickOnce is similar technology to the Java Web Start for the Java Platform. ClickOnce applications can be developed in the Microsoft Visual Studio.
ClickOnce deployment manifest description
The application file extension is mainly associated with ClickOnce, a Microsoft's technology for deploying Windows Forms or Windows Presentation Foundation-based software, which is also called Smart clients. It is similar to Java Web Start for the Java Platform. ClickOnce is only available in .NET 2.0 and its later versions.
The application files contain a deployment manifest, a XML file that describes a ClickOnce deployment, including the identification of the current ClickOnce application version to deploy.
The application files were designed to provide easy "one click" deployments of user-level Windows applications. They have a corresponding .appref-ms file that activates the ClickOne for a program, which subsequently executes within the .NET framework in Windows.
Suggested software to open application file
Microsoft Windows
A series of operating systems developed by Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio
IDE for creating programs, or websites and web applications