Unable to load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf'

Question

Why can I not use WebView2 in my .NET 8.0 WPF application?

I can load the package from NuGet, the dlls are referenced in my project:

• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf

Those dlls are also present in the debug folder.

I added just a simple WV2 in my XAML:

<Window x:Class="webview2test.MainWindow"
 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
 xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
 xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
 xmlns:local="clr-namespace:webview2test"
 xmlns:wv2="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf;assembly=Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf"
 mc:Ignorable="d"
 Title="MainWindow" Height="450" Width="800">
<Grid>
 <wv2:WebView2 Name="webView" Source="https://www.microsoft.com" />
</Grid>
</Window>

I immediately get this error:

XDG0003 Unable to load the file or assembly 'Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf, Version=1.0.3351.48, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=2a8ab48044d2601e'

It seems wv2:WebView2 is the source of the problem...

How can I resolve this?

EDIT to add more details

I installed the WebView2 with NuGet and I can see the Microsoft.Web.WebView2 listed in the packages folder

the csproj:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
 <PropertyGroup>
 <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
 <TargetFramework>net8.0-windows</TargetFramework>
 <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
 <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
 <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
 </PropertyGroup>
 <ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Web.WebView2" Version="1.0.3351.48" />
 </ItemGroup>
</Project>

EDIT more details after cleaning all project errors

The error is only appearin in a Tabitem user control but don't affect the application to work

<TabItem x:Class="WpfApp1.WebBrowser"
 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
 xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
 xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
 xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WpfApp1"
 xmlns:web="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf;assembly=Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf"
 mc:Ignorable="d" 
 d:DesignHeight="450" d:DesignWidth="800">
 <Grid>
 <web:WebView2 Name="Browser" Source="http://192.168.1.150"></web:WebView2>
 </Grid> 
</TabItem>

END

I didn't found any solution but at the same time that error isn't really blocking the script to run correctly, maybe a bug? Anyway I will continue like this for now and see if in the future I will get more troubles

• Jimi: How did you install the WebView2 package? Did you use NuGet Package Manager? Do you see the reference of WebView2 in Dependencies->Packages? -- Post the content of the .csproj file
• Jay Buckman: XDG003 is just a designer issue. Do you have any other errors? If not, try cleaning the project, restarting, and rebuilding.
• user2584927: @JayBuckman Has a great point. Sometimes clearing the bin and obj folders restarting can fix some of these issues.