WebView2 working without WebView2 Runtime - webview

Question

we trying to use WebView2 without WebView2 Runtime (because of it´s 100 MB size and distributing it to clients).
It was tested on 2 PC´s. Both of them have same version of Edge.
On PC1 WebView2 is not working whithout WV2 Runtime, on PC2 is working fine.
Do you have please any clue where can be a problem, why on PC1 is not WebView2 working? (PC1 is used for programming, PC2 no).
Thank you

Answer 1

You can use a fixed Version of WebView2 and by this make sure that your programm works on every PC even if they dont have the runtime installed.
Here you can download the fixed version you prefer:
https://developer.microsoft.com/de-de/microsoft-edge/webview2/
After you downloaded it you need to decompress the file into a folder of your choice.
You can do this with the command-line command:
expand {path to the package} -F:* {path to the destination folder}
Now you should have a folder with an executable runtime for WebView2. With the following code you can say where the path of this "executable folder" is.
var webViewEnvironment = await Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.CoreWebView2Environment.CreateAsync("Path of the executable folder"), ("Path where you want the Cache to be saved")));
await webView2.EnsureCoreWebView2Async(webViewEnvironment);
With this you don't need to install the WebView2 Runtime

Answer 2

The runtime is required for WebView2 (with the special exception that insider builds of Edge will provide it). So the answer is that you cannot use WebView2 without the WebView2 Runtime.

Answer 3

To run any WebView2 based applications pre-requisite is to have WebView2 Runtime available on the host machine.
There are two possibilities of running a WebView2 based application
So for your question
Do you have please any clue where can be a problem, why on PC1 is not
WebView2 working? (PC1 is used for programming, PC2 no).
There could be a possibility that Evergreen WebView2 Runtime would already be present on host system (Where app runs).
Also related to availability of Evergreen WebView2 runtime -
In June 2022, Microsoft announced that it would make the WebView2
runtime available to all Windows 10 devices running at least April
2018 updates.
So if you have Windows 10 with 2018 updates or Windows 11 you would be having evergreen WebView2 runtime present.
Advice:
To be sure that your application runs on systems not having Evergreen WebView2 runtime already installed
supply fixed runtime along with your applications as extra payload.
Use webview2 installer during the application start after checking WebView2 runtime availability ( would require elevated privileges )