I made a small C# console app and right now I'm trying to build it so it could run on other computers. This is my first time finishing such a project, and I've never built or distributed console apps before, and I couldn't find any clear documentation on properly building console apps. So far I've sent the files I found in the /bin/Debug/netcoreapp 3.1 (pretty much the executable, the needed dll's and a text file the app is supposed to read) after I pressed Build , to two of my friends. One of them has C# installed, the other doesn't. The console app only ran on the computer of the friend that had C# installed, but not on my other friend's computer (it was just opening and closing immediately. Also, my /bin/Release folder never gets populated, even if I switch the Configuration to Release. It only filled out after I tried publishing the app, but it still behaved the same as the one in the Debug folder. I'm using Visual Studio 2019. Could somebody teach me how to properly build my console app so that it runs on all PC's, please?
If you are developing against .NET Core (3,5 or even 6) the machine you are deploying to will need the .NET Core runtime. If you are using .NET Framework the machine will need the .NET Framework runtime installed.
When you publish a .NET Core application you can choose to package the project as self-contained which does not require the user to install the .NET Core runtime.
See this link for more info: .NET application publishing overview
"Publishing your app as self-contained produces an application that includes the .NET runtime and libraries, and your application and its dependencies. Users of the application can run it on a machine that doesn't have the .NET runtime installed."
Related
I am building a standalone Windows C# console application using .NET Framework 4.5. Since I want it to run in background without command prompt appearing, the output type is set to 'Windows Application'.
Most answers I found in the internet is how to build application that doesn't require .NET Framework to be installed but in my case, I want the application to run without requiring users to install it in Windows.
I was able to do that if the target framework is .NET Core but when the target framework is .NET Framework, the published application has no .exe file but only application manifest & setup files which upon running will open an installation wizard.
Even when publishing the application in Visual Studio 2019, the publish wizard asks "How will users install the application?". Is that mean any console application using .NET Framework shall be installed first before it can be executed? Many thanks in advance for any help/answer.
How about instead of publishing it just copy the .exe from the bin/debug folder? Then it should work without installing or publishing it. (if it is just 1 Assembly)
Created very simple WPF .Net Core app with VS2019Prof V16.3.1.
Created new project - WPF App (.Net Core)
Nothing else was done, just only built the project (Debug and Release) - successfully run it on 'dev' computer Win10 V1809 (Build 17763.740)
Copied debug and release folder to 'client' computer Win10 V1809 (Build 17763.740)
Installed .Net Core 3.0 Desktop Runtime on 'client' computer
rebooted client computer
tried to run debug and release version
Just no reaction when starting the app.
... tried to observe anything with SysInternals ProcessExplorer, it starts and immediately stop. No crash message, ... nothing...
What else could I do to narrow down the reason why it doesn't start?
Found and tested two solutions:
Install .NET Core SDK instead of .NET Core Desktop Runtime
See https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/3.0
Deploy as self-contained app
Select Publish
Create Profile
Adjust Profile
Finally Publish
I created my first simple C# app in VS 2010. Nothing but an application that runs a form and uses several references. I want to put this on other machines. What is needed to run this application besides the exe. I am targeting .NET 4.0 and I know 4.0 is installed on the machines. I tried to put it on a machine but all it does is nothing. Is there some kind of runtime I need to install besides the .NET framework. What is required to run this Winform app. Thanks
If you dump the bin\Release folder on another computer, you should be able to run it by running <myApp>.exe as long as the computer has the target .NET framework installed.
I have Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 installed in my computer. I wrote a program using C# & it created a .exe file in the Debug directory. When I double click on the .exe file, I can open it on my machine. But if I copy that .exe file and try to run it on another computer, (that doesn't have Microsoft Visual Studio) it doesn't work. Can you please tell me how can I make a .exe file work on any computer? Or if you know a website that explains it. I have done this using Winzip long time ago and including all the library files alone with the .ext file. but don't remember how I did that anymore. Does any one knows how can I include all my library files alone with the .exe file. so I can run it on a computers that doesn't have those library files?
Programs compiled with VS2010 can be targeted against a variety of .NET Frameworks. However, the many versions of Windows don't always have the most recent .NET versions installed.
Check which version of the .NET Framework your program is using by looking under the Application tab of your project properties. You should see a Target Framework drop down list, which will tell you what version of the framework other computers will need to have installed in order to run your program.
You have a few options to get your program working on other computers.
Compile the program with a different, lower framework. (e.g. .NET 2 is often available on Windows XP, while .NET 4 is uncommon on this OS.) This will only work if you aren't using any features from later versions of .NET.
Install the .NET framework you require on the client machine. Microsoft provides frameworks to download and install from http://www.microsoft.com/net/download
Try creating a Windows Installer using the Setup Project template. Add a new project to your solution from the Setup and Deployment category. After setting up this project, you should have an installer to run on other machines.
You will have to have the appropriate version of the .NET Framework installed on the computer you want to run your application on.
This are the things that you need to do.
Check if what OS version of your computer. If it's Windows XP check if it has .net framework 3.5 or to 4.0.You can download it here Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Try to do Set up and deployment.
Step-by-Step Process of Creating a Setup and Deployment Project
Best Regards
We are building an application on .net, And it is an Image Viewer application uses .net 3.5.
And this application will be on a CD along with other images.
My Question is, is it possible to Auto Run this application when you insert a CD on a machine which DOESN'T Contain .NET Frame Work.
Or any other ways of building the application which runs from the CD.
Autorun is a feature of Windows. It does not have anything to do with .NET really. You can use it by placing apropriate files in the root of your CD.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoRun
In order to execute a .NET app WITHOUT .NET framework installed, point the Autorun.inf to an installer of you application, which would be deployed on the CD as well.
The application will fail to run directly when it cannot find the libraries it need.
What you can do is to create a non-.NET dependent bootstrapper, include the framework installer.
So when the CD auto run, run the bootstrapper, the bootstrapper will run the installer. Once installed, run the application.
No, you can't run .NET applications on a computer without the .NET Framework installed. That's a hard rule, and a pretty intuitive one, it seems to me. Somehow, this question still gets asked a lot.
But Auto Run has nothing to do with the .NET Framework. It's a feature provided by the Windows operating system designed to run your setup/installation program directly from the inserted installation medium without requiring any kind of user interaction.
So what you should be doing is creating a setup program for your .NET application. You can do this from within Visual Studio: just create a Setup Project instead of a Windows Forms Application. The setup program will take care of detecting whether or not the computer has the appropriate version of the .NET Framework installed, and installing it if necessary along with the application. The setup bootstrapper will be able to run without the .NET Framework installed, so you can create an autorun.inf file that simply specifies setup.exe as the application to be launched automatically.
I've used mono to do this a few times, not with the static linking as mentioned in the other answer, but by including the mono distribution on the cd (or a subset of it). Mono doesn't seem to do much in the way of modifying registry, system32, etc. So you can do an xcopy deployment of if, or CD deployment in this case. You'll end up running mono.exe
I think Mono supports some form of static linking that doesn't require installation. But I never tried it myself.