URLDownloadToCacheFile Error with ClickOnce

Zaphekiah 1

I am trying to distribute a Windows WPF application using ClickOnce in Visual Studio 2022. I have published the set up files successfully, but when I go to the download page and click on the install button and run the setup.exe I get an error message that refers me to an error log which tells me:

URLDownloadToCacheFile failed with HRESULT '-2146697202'
Error: An error occurred trying to download 'https://www.blah.com/publish/blah.application'.

There is nothing wrong with the URL. If I copy and paste it into my browser I can download and run the file with no issues. Also, if I ignore the Install button and click on the "launch" link instead, then this downloads the blah.application application file correctly.

I have tried the download using Chrome and Edge with the same result. I have also tried it from a couple of different machines.

I have read various posts about this but most of them involve changing browser settings that as far as I can tell are obsolete.

Any help with this would be gratefully received.

Jack J Jun 24,286 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-10-10T05:52:43.907+00:00

@Zaphekiah , Welcome to Microsoft Q&A, Could you provide the steps about how do you create your download page? BTW, you could refer to the similar issue URLDownloadToCacheFile failed with HRESULT '-2146697208' to modify your registry to check if it works for you.
Zaphekiah 1 Reputation point

2022-10-12T10:21:21.587+00:00

Hi Jack,

Thanks for your suggestion, I checked out that registry setting but I see that caching of SSL pages is enabled on my machine so that is not the issue.

These are the steps I am taking to publish the application:

1) Right click on project and in properties go to Signing >> Sign the ClickOnce manifests. I select my certificate and key in the password and it shows up in the Certificate box with the right details.

2) In the Security tab I am choosing "partial trust application" and Internet zone.

3) In the Publish tab I run the wizard:

a) Location to publish is a ftp folder on my web server.

b) How will users install the application? I am choosing website and putting in the website and folder e.g.

https://www.blah.com/publish/

c) Yes, this application is available online or offline.

On pressing finish and providing my FTP password the files are published correctly according to Visual Studio (I am not incrementing the version at this point so the files are overwritten). The publish.htm is generated by the wizard and copied to the website.

It seems to me that blah.application works fine and the problem is with setup.exe. Could you tell me where setup.exe reads the location of the download folder? Is it compiled into the executable or is it read off one of the other files uploaded to the website. If it is compiled into the executable, is the same value maybe held in one of the local files in my solution folder? If that were the case I could check it there to make sure it had the right value.

Thanks for you help!
Zaphekiah 1 Reputation point

2022-10-21T16:53:38.147+00:00

Hi Jack,

Thanks for your reply. I tried that link but that wasn't the problem, I don't have caching disabled.

I am using the publishing wizard in Visual Studio. On the first tab I give the ftp folder where the deployment files are built. On the second tab the url which corresponds to this folder (e.g. https://www.blah.com/publish/). On the third tab I am choosing "Yes, the application is available online and offline".

On the signing tab I am putting my valid sectigo signing certificate and password and the correct timestamp url.

On the security tab I am choosing "partial trust application" and for ClickOnce security permissions "internet".

Everything seems to go fine with the build except for this error.

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.