diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerFactory.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerFactory.java
index 78e90fa4..4908f936 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerFactory.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerFactory.java
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
  */
 package org.jboss.vfs.protocol;
 
-
 import java.net.URLStreamHandler;
 import java.net.URLStreamHandlerFactory;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -27,7 +26,9 @@
  * URLStreamHandlerFactory providing URLStreamHandlers for VFS based URLS.
  *
  * @author John Bailey
+ * @deprecated Use {@link VfsUrlStreamHandlerProvider} instead.
  */
+@Deprecated(forRemoval = true)
 public class VfsUrlStreamHandlerFactory implements URLStreamHandlerFactory {
 
     private static Map<String, URLStreamHandler> handlerMap = new HashMap<String, URLStreamHandler>(1);
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerProvider.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerProvider.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c01a28c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/vfs/protocol/VfsUrlStreamHandlerProvider.java
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+/*
+ * JBoss, Home of Professional Open Source
+ * Copyright 2010, JBoss Inc., and individual contributors as indicated
+ * by the @authors tag.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.jboss.vfs.protocol;
+
+import java.net.URLStreamHandler;
+import java.net.spi.URLStreamHandlerProvider;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+/**
+ * URLStreamHandlerProvider providing URLStreamHandlers for VFS based URLs.
+ *
+ * @author <a href="mailto:ropalka@redhat.com">Richard Opalka</a>
+ */
+public final class VfsUrlStreamHandlerProvider extends URLStreamHandlerProvider {
+
+    private static Map<String, URLStreamHandler> handlerMap = new HashMap<String, URLStreamHandler>(1);
+
+    static {
+        handlerMap.put("vfs", new VirtualFileURLStreamHandler());
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public URLStreamHandler createURLStreamHandler(final String protocol) {
+        return handlerMap.get(protocol);
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/java.net.spi.URLStreamHandlerProvider b/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/java.net.spi.URLStreamHandlerProvider
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a6d1163c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/java.net.spi.URLStreamHandlerProvider
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+org.jboss.vfs.protocol.VfsUrlStreamHandlerProvider
\ No newline at end of file