How to add System.Windows.Interactivity to project?

Question

My project missing System.Windows.Interactivity. Google says that I have to install Expression Blend, but on my other computer I have this library and I don't have Expression Blend installed. So there should be another way to obtain System.Windows.Interactivity? What should I do? (right now i don't have another computer so I can not just copy this library :)

For visual studio 2019 check this https://stackoverflow.com/a/65701484/3088349 — Maytham Fahmi, Jan 19 '21 at 16:55

Jan · Answer 1 · 2019-11-07T12:42:42.210

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Although this issue is quite old, i think this is relevant news / the most recent answer: Microsoft open-sourced XAML Behaviours and posted a blog post how to update to this version: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/open-sourcing-xaml-behaviors-for-wpf/

To save you a click, this is the main steps to migrate:

Remove reference to “Microsoft.Expression.Interactions” and “System.Windows.Interactivity”
Install the Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors.Wpf NuGet package.
XAML files – replace the xmlns namespaces http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/interactivity and http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/interactions with http://schemas.microsoft.com/xaml/behaviors
C# files – replace the usings in c# files “Microsoft.Xaml.Interactivity” and “Microsoft.Xaml.Interactions” with “Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors”

edited Nov 07 '19 at 12:42

answered May 21 '19 at 14:13

Jan

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This is--now--absolutely the correct answer. I'm so glad Microsoft has finally done this. Thanks for posting it. I'm not sure how I missed the blog entry. There should be a newsletter for "Cool, new Microsoft NuGet packages." – skst Jun 26 '19 at 23:25
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If Stackoverflow has emotions, I would use a hart for your answer – Ibrahim Kais Ibrahim Jul 09 '19 at 18:23
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Should be the selected answer as of 2019. Thanks for taking time to add this important update. – mins Sep 19 '19 at 16:59
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Worked for me. I updated solution from 2015 on VS2019. Thank you. – KulaGGin Oct 15 '19 at 08:20
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In addition, if you're using any of the shapes in http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/drawing, you can use [this nuget package](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Expression.Drawing/) - no code changes are required. – Daniel Elkington Nov 25 '19 at 22:47
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[Prism.Wpf](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Prism.Wpf/) package still has `System.Windows.Interactivity`. If you use the prism framework, you don't need to use `Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors.Wpf`. – Jeong Hansol Apr 21 '20 at 08:55
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After installing Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors.Wpf, it works on my local Visual Studio 2019 but it fails on build agent. Nuget restore step is there before the build step. Any suggestions? – Sundeep Apr 30 '20 at 16:00
@Sundeep Have you had any luck with build agent? Have the same issue and no solution is working for me – n0ne Jan 13 '21 at 09:22
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@n0ne: Yes, if it is your build server, make sure you update you have 2019 on your build server. – Sundeep Jan 14 '21 at 11:09
Probably it is easy to see but replace also ei with i inside EventTrigger if you use CallMethodAction. – Amadeus Jan 18 '22 at 18:30
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I followed this guide and had the error "Unknown build error, Cannot resolve dependency [...] , because it has been preloaded. When using the reflection-only APIs, dependant assemblies must be pre-loaded or loaded on demand through the ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve event." after installing version 1.1.39 of the nuget package. Removing the dependency Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors.Design solved the issue. Solution found with https://stackoverflow.com/a/8740734/18783212. – Libranova Apr 13 '22 at 08:17
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Thank you - this helped a lot. Note for future readers: Don't be fooled by intellisense and on-the-fly error messages. It reports that it cannot find the Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors assembly. Just rebuild the solution! – JeffRSon May 19 '22 at 09:56
@DanielElkington Looks like that nuget is no longer available. Any other options? – kong88 Oct 05 '22 at 19:25

H.B. · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-21T07:33:19.967

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The official package for behaviors is Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors.Wpf.

It used to be in the Blend SDK (deprecated).
See Jan's answer for more details if you need to migrate.

edited Jan 21 '21 at 07:33

answered Dec 02 '11 at 17:33

H.B.

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Is that version compatible with .Net Framework 4.6.1? – VansFannel May 12 '16 at 12:25
@VansFannel: No idea, haven't used it in a while. – H.B. May 12 '16 at 14:09
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Not compatible with 4.6 ! – alerya Jul 04 '16 at 05:42
@alerya: It should not be too hard to find the most current version of that library. – H.B. Jul 04 '16 at 15:28
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It's very sad and makes me mad. I am sadly using code behind for that reason. Shame on MS. – alerya Jul 04 '16 at 17:10
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@alerya: 1. You can completely write the behaviour of that SDK yourself if you really want to. 2. Have you tried to the nu-get package? – H.B. Jul 04 '16 at 17:20
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I know this is obvious to some of you but you need to reference is:`xmlns:i="http://schemas.microsoft.com/xaml/behaviors"` not: `xmlns:i="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/2010/interactivity"` like in every other example I've seen. – Yosef Bernal Jan 23 '20 at 15:12
@YosefBernal no its not obvious for beginners. This helped me. Thank you – Rajshekar Reddy Aug 19 '21 at 13:05

score 62 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 03 '19 at 08:26

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There is a new NuGet package that contains the System.Windows.Interactivity.dll that is compatible with:

WPF 4.0, 4.5
Silverligt 4.0, 5.0
Windows Phone 7.1, 8.0
Windows Store 8, 8.1

To install Expression.Blend.Sdk, run the following command in the Package Manager Console

PM> Install-Package Expression.Blend.Sdk

http://www.nuget.org/packages/Expression.Blend.Sdk/

edited Jan 03 '19 at 08:26

H. Pauwelyn

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answered Apr 29 '14 at 12:18

Thomas

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Note that this package is not an official Microsoft distribution – piers7 Aug 26 '15 at 00:59
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If you have MVVM Light already installed, it will introduce a clashing version of `System.Windows.Interactivity`. To resolve, see my answer above. – Contango Sep 22 '15 at 14:21
If you are using Caliburn.Micro (v 2), then this is the way to go. – Mark Bonafe Mar 24 '22 at 16:40

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 23 '13 at 14:09

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The easiest way might be to get it from NuGet:

http://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Windows.Interactivity.WPF/

answered Oct 23 '13 at 14:09

seabass2020

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Note that this package is not an official Microsoft distribution – piers7 Aug 26 '15 at 01:00

score 22 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 25 '16 at 21:47

With Blend for Visual Studio, which is included in Visual Studio starting with version 2013, you can find the DLL in the following folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Expression\Blend\.NETFramework\v4.5\Libraries

You will have to add the reference to the System.Windows.Interactivity.dll yourself though, unless you use Blend for Visual Studio with an existing project to add functionality that makes use of the Interactivity namespace. In that case, Blend will add the reference automatically.

This helped this fix my project. With Visual Studio 2017, we have to go in Visual Studio Installer and find it in the Individual Components (SDK category). — PRouleau, Jul 27 '17 at 21:28

score 19 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 28 '21 at 17:10

Sometimes, when you add a new library, in introduces a clashing version of System.Windows.Interactivity.dll.

For example, the NuGet package MVVM light might require v4.2 of System.Windows.Interactivity.dll, but the NuGet package Rx-XAML might require v4.5 of System.Windows.Interactivity.dll. This will prevent the the project from working, because no matter which version of System.Windows.Interactivity.dll you include, one of the libraries will refuse to compile.

To fix, add an Assembly Binding Redirect by editing your app.config to look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Windows.Interactivity"
                          publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"
                          culture="neutral"/>
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.0.0.0"
                         newVersion="4.5.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
  <startup><supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5"/></startup>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="TestKey" value="true"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

Don't worry about changing the PublicKeyToken, that's constant across all versions, as it depends on the name of the .dll, not the version.

Ensure that you match the newVersion in your appConfig to the actual version that you end up pointing at:

You did the exact same post here, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13514027/could-not-load-file-or-assembly-system-windows-interactivity Multiple points :) — pix, Aug 16 '16 at 13:04

wondra · Answer 7 · 2020-07-03T09:25:29.717

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Alternative solution is to modify your current Visual Studio installation in the Visual Studio Installer

Win+R %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vs_installer.exe

adding the Blend for Visual Studio SDK for .NET 'Individual component' under 'SDKs, libraries, and frameworks':

after adding this component System.Windows.Interactivity should appear in its regular location Add Reference/Assemblies/Extensions.

It appears this would only work for VS2017 or earlier. For later versions, please refer to other answers.

edited Jul 03 '20 at 09:25

answered Aug 31 '18 at 07:39

wondra

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does not appear for me :( – Julien Feb 16 '19 at 05:35
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does not appear for me either. using VS 2019 – Barış Akkurt Jul 01 '20 at 13:13
@BarışAkkurt check this answer for visual studio 2019 https://stackoverflow.com/a/65701484/3088349 – Maytham Fahmi Jan 19 '21 at 16:55

Maytham Fahmi · Answer 8 · 2021-01-23T07:39:19.540

I have had the exact same problem with a solution, that System.Windows.Interactivity was required for one of the project in Visual Studio 2019, and I tried to install Blend for Visual Studio SDK for .NET from Visual Studio 2019 Individual components, but it did not exist in it.

The consequence of that, I was not able to build the project in my solution with repetitive of following similar error on different XAML parts of the project:

The tag 'Interaction.Behaviors' does not exist in XML namespace 'clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity'.

The above mentioned errors snapshot example

The solution, the way I solved it, is by installing Microsoft Expression Blend Software Development Kit (SDK) for .NET 4 from Microsoft.

Thanks to my colleague @felza, mentioned that System.Windows.Interactivity requires this sdk, that is suppose to be located in this folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Expression\Blend\.NETFramework\v4.0

In my case it was not installed. I have had this folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs with out Expression\Blend\.NETFramework\v4.0 folder inside it.

After installing it, all errors disappeared.

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 24 '15 at 10:31

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It's in MVVM Light, get it from the MVVM Light Download Page.

answered Jul 24 '15 at 10:31

Contango

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Best Solution. Addition: use nuget `Install-Package MvvmLightLibs -Version 5.3.0` – hdev Jul 26 '17 at 14:43

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 04 '17 at 07:54

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I got it via the Prism.WPF NuGet-Package. (it includes Windows.System.Interactivity)

answered Aug 04 '17 at 07:54

Halloween_Udo

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nairda-newb · Answer 11 · 2019-08-21T13:51:51.997

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If you are working with MVVM Light you have to use the System.Windows.Interactivity Version 4.0 (the NuGet .dll wont work) that you can find under :

PathToProjectFolder\Software\packages\MvvmLightLibs.5.4.1.1\lib\net45\System.Windows.Interactivity.dll

Just add this .dll manually as Reference and it should be fine.

edited Aug 21 '19 at 13:51

answered Aug 21 '19 at 13:40

nairda-newb

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 05 '21 at 12:09

I was getting the following error using Visual Studio 2019:

System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException: 'Could not load file or assembly 'System.Windows.Interactivity, Version=4.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)'

Our project is using packages.config and had NuGet references to MVVMLightLibs 5.4.1.1 and System.Windows.Interactivity.WPF 2.0.20525.

Guided by some of the other answers here, I realised the problem was a conflict between the version of the DLL that MVVMLight was using and the one our project was using. The solution was:

Remove the NuGet reference to System.Windows.Interactivity.
Added a Reference to packages\MvvmLightLibs.5.4.1.1\lib\net45\System.Windows.Interactivity.dll.
Add (in our case, update) a Binding Redirect to app.config:

<dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Windows.Interactivity" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" culture="neutral" />
    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.5.0.0" newVersion="4.5.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 22 '23 at 15:53

Use the following two NuGet packages

1.Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors.wpf

2.Expression.Blend.Sdk.WPF

Moreover while installing VS2022 see option to install blend sdk. click on the checkbox while installing.If you have not found that check box then tick the UWP and then you can see that option while installing VS 2022.

How to add System.Windows.Interactivity to project?

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