Extract text from ClickOnce deployment manifests (APPLICATION)
To convert APPLICATION manifests to another format, you need Microsoft .NET Framework or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Deployment Manifest" file type, you need software like Microsoft .NET Framework or a similar tool.
The .application file is an XML-formatted ClickOnce Deployment Manifest created by the Microsoft .NET Framework. Its primary use case is to launch application installations directly from a web page or network share without requiring administrator permissions. It stores critical metadata about the software's identity, versioning, security dependencies, and the exact server location for updates.
Because it is strictly a deployment manifest rather than a traditional installer or data file, the .application format is useless outside of the Windows ecosystem. Users on macOS or Linux cannot execute these files. A major disadvantage of this format is that it does not contain any executable code; it is essentially just a text file pointing to an actual EXE or DLL. Furthermore, if the server hosting the actual application goes offline, the .application file becomes entirely non-functional.
Users typically want to convert or read .application files to extract the underlying download URLs, troubleshoot installation errors, or inspect security certificates. The best conversion targets are plain text formats like XML or TXT. Because the file is pure text, you will not lose any data when saving it as an XML document.
Converting a .application file to an executable format like EXE or a standalone installer like MSI is technically impossible because the file only contains text metadata. Standard online converters fail because they mistakenly treat it as a compiled application. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your APPLICATION file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted EXE, APK, MANIFEST, COM, ZIP, APP, PDF, HTML, URL, RAR, S, BIN and DOCX files.
If you want to convert APPLICATION file to PDF, APK, SERVICE, MP4, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML or YML, you can use Microsoft .NET Framework or similar software from the "ClickOnce Application Deployment Manifest" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to APPLICATION, try Microsoft .NET Framework or another comparable tool in the "ClickOnce Application Deployment Manifest" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our APPLICATION converter.