Don't know about some of your problem. But you can change the ZoomToFullExtent if you have Expression. Open the project in Expression and select the Navigation Control. Right click on the [Navigation] control and select Edit Template... Edit Copy. Exit Expression and save changes.Then in the xaml that was added to your User Control resources, there is a Navigation Style. Somewhere in there is the button ZoomMyFullExtent. Add a CLICK event to the button
<Button x:Name="ZoomMyFullExtent" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" Cursor="Hand" Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Height="20" ToolTipService.ToolTip="Full Extent" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Width="20" Click="ZoomFullExtent_Click">
<Grid Height="14" Width="14" Background="#FFE08D25">
<Ellipse Height="Auto" Stroke="White" Width="Auto"/>
<Ellipse Height="6" Stroke="White" Width="Auto"/>
<Ellipse Height="Auto" Stroke="White" Width="6"/>
</Grid>
</Button>
And this is my click event
//routine to override the existing zoom to full extent which will zoom to world. This zooms to specified envelope.
private void ZoomFullExtent_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Geometry.Envelope g = new ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Geometry.Envelope(-8959408, 3149172, -8931633, 3170921);
MyMap.ZoomTo(g);
}