Answer - The .xap file contains an application manifest (AppManifest.xaml) file and all the necessary DLLs that are required by the application. The first DLL contained is the compiled version of your application and has the same name of your application. In my test, I created an application named "SilverlightApplication1", so the DLL is named "SilverlightApplication1.dll". The rest of the DLLs are the dependencies the application requires.