Loading application resources

Described is a technology by which application-related resources are differentiated from other types of resources via a uniform resource identifier (URI) associated with each resource. Application-related resources may include a resource embedded in the application program, at least one content file associated with (e.g., distributed with) the application program, or a resource located on a site from which the application program was deployed. Because of the URI, a creating/loading mechanism may be called using substantially similar calling code to that which is used to call the mechanism for loading another type of resource, thereby providing a consistent programming model. In one example, the URI includes a packaging scheme and authority, or a relative path which may be converted to an absolute URI. The mechanism creates an object corresponding to the application-related resource, and loads the resource or a stream of a compound resource.