I created a new .net 8.0 winforms project in vs2022, it includes the latest webview2 nuget package.

myawesomeprogram.cs

namespace myawesomenamespace
{
  internal static class myawesomeprogram
  {
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
      ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize();
      Application.Run(new myawesomeform());
    }
  }
}

myawesomeform.designer.cs

namespace myawesomenamespace
{
  partial class myawesomeform
  {
    private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

    protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
      if (disposing && (components != null))
      {
        components.Dispose();
      }
      base.Dispose(disposing);
    }

    private void InitializeComponent()
    {
      myawesomewebview = new Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2();          
      ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)myawesomewebview).BeginInit();
      SuspendLayout();

      myawesomewebview.AllowExternalDrop = true;
      myawesomewebview.CreationProperties = null;
      myawesomewebview.DefaultBackgroundColor = Color.White;
      myawesomewebview.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
      myawesomewebview.Location = new Point(0, 0);
      myawesomewebview.Name = "myawesomewebview";
      myawesomewebview.Size = new Size(800, 450);
      myawesomewebview.TabIndex = 4;
      myawesomewebview.ZoomFactor = 1D;

      AutoScaleDimensions = new SizeF(7F, 15F);
      AutoScaleMode = AutoScaleMode.Font;
      ClientSize = new Size(800, 450);
      Controls.Add(myawesomewebview);
      Name = "myawesomeform";
      Text = "myawesomeform";
      WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
      Load += myawesomeform_Load;
      ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)myawesomewebview).EndInit();
      ResumeLayout(false);
    }

    private Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.WebView2 myawesomewebview;
  }
}

myawesomeform.cs

using Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core;

namespace myawesomenamespace
{
  public partial class myawesomeform : Form
  {
    private Random? myawesomerandom;

    public myawesomeform()
    {
      InitializeComponent();
    }

    private async void myawesomeform_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      CoreWebView2Environment? myawesomeenvironment = await CoreWebView2Environment.CreateAsync();
      await myawesomewebview.EnsureCoreWebView2Async(myawesomeenvironment);

      myawesomerandom = new Random();
      await Task.Delay(myawesomerandom.Next(1000, 2000));
      myawesomewebview.Source = new Uri("http://lixxx.co.uk");
      await Task.Delay(myawesomerandom.Next(1000, 2000));
      myawesomewebview.Source = new Uri("http://lmfgtfy.co.uk");
    }
  }
}

It runs on my development machine perfectly well.

I configured a publish profile with a release configuration, a .net 8.0 windows target framework, a win x64 target runtime, a self contained deployment mode using the single file and ready to run compilation options.

The published .exe file, in its published directory, runs correctly.

When I cut and paste the entire published directory onto a 64 bit AMD server, running windows server 2022 and run the .exe, the application loads and immediately displays an unhandled error exception dialogue with the exception text ‘System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002)’.

The application had a requirement to write to a text file, but I have since deleted it from the latest builds.

The server has the .net 8.0 hosting bundle and the .net 8.0 x64 runtime installed.