[Bug]: Cannot exclude bloat from Microsoft.Web.WebView2 package

[znakeeye]

What happened?

Referencing Microsoft.Web.WebView2 produces significant bloat in the output folder. The same goes for deployed app. All in all, 1 MB which can be throw away. But how?

Importance

Moderate. My app's user experience is affected, but still usable.

Runtime Channel

Stable release (WebView2 Runtime)

Runtime Version

1.0.2792.45

SDK Version

No response

Framework

WPF

Operating System

Windows 10

OS Version

No response

Repro steps

1. Create a WPF project targeting .NET 8.
2. Add a reference to WebView2 as shown below.
3. Optionally add an x64 configuration and select it.

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Web.WebView2" Version="1.0.2792.45" />
</ItemGroup>

Now look in the build folder. Why do we see all this bloat? Targeting WPF and x64 we certainly don't need all this:

• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.xml
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.xml
• Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf.xml
• runtimes/win-arm64/native/WebView2Loader.dll
• OK: runtimes/win-x64/native/WebView2Loader.dll
• runtimes/win-x86/native/WebView2Loader.dll

Repros in Edge Browser

No, issue does not reproduce in the corresponding Edge version

Regression

No, this never worked

Last working version (if regression)

No response

[Danielx64]

From my history, that always been the case with having those extra files.