how to create silent installer exe for wpf c# application? - c#

I developed C# wpf application using 3rd party SDK now i want to deploy application. i want to create exe which is download and install application directly from web with minimal user interaction.
i also want to install .net framework silently on client machine without user interaction. for example like zoom meeting windows application.
Thank You.

you say download and install but how?
if you want to install like msi setup i'm suggest you to try squirrel
which is like clickonce but it works.
But you can also check: Installshield or Advanced Installer which it can let you create an update windows service. With windows service privileges, you can do your job without user interaction.
Also the other way which i prefered 2 months ago is your own application. You can create an updater windows service application. I've developed an updater software which checks an url for the version, if the version higher then download and update the application. Also check if application is running if app is not running then run it. i'm starting processes with an 3rd party tool which you can find it here you will need it if you want to develop your own application which is windows service. Because of windows service isolated "session 0"
I think best way will be your own development.

Related

C# windows service install with desktop application

I have a wpf desktop application (ERP) system
Application is using setup and deployment to create the .exe file
Now, i want to create a window service for my application to do some background check ups , synchronizations with my database etc.
I know how to create a service in.net and how manually to install it following the examples online.
My question is how i can install (or include let's say) this service within my .exe setup.
I don't want the user to be responsible to install the service.
Neither me to login every time someone pc to install the service
Not sure if i misunderstood the purpose of service but i found nothing online related to my question.
You can use Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects and include your service/main project at the same time
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioClient.MicrosoftVisualStudio2017InstallerProjects

Install a windows service from Windows Store application

I'm building a desktop application in WPF that installs a Windows Service (that I'm also building) on first start.
I'd like to be able to build and distribute a windows store application out of this.
Building the package seems to work, but when the application tries to install the service, it fails because such an operation needs elevated privileges.
I know that windows store applications run in isolated environment but I really hope that for desktop application (not UWP) there's a way to tweak the appxmanifest to grant such operation.
Any help/advice is welcome !

automatically update desktop app

We have a web app and a desktop windows WPF app.
Windows app sends data to webapp (hosted on azure)
Users download app from website. There are occasionally new versions of desktop apps available.
What is the most efficient way to setup automatic updates for desktop app? We are using github.
I found "releases" in github but I'm not sure how to notify desktop app and how to create an updater. (I guess we need to check for github releases every time app is started. Do I need to use Github api for this?)
What is the best repository structure for releases?
I'm looking for best practicies on how to perform seamless updates to desktop apps. (In terms of repository setup, creating web api to pull version info maybe?)
You can deploy your desktop applications using ClickOnce Deployment mechanism. This will take care of updating the software. Your users download the software from a publicly accessible Internet site. Whenever you have a new version available, you can simply deploy the latest deployment files on the download link. ClickOnce deployed application automatically check for any updated version on that link and prompt the user to download and install the latest version.
From the same MSDN link, one of the problems solved by ClickOnce deployment is facilitating automated updates:
Difficulties in updating applications. With Microsoft Windows
Installer deployment, whenever an application is updated, the user
must reinstall the whole application; with ClickOnce deployment, you
can provide updates automatically. Only those parts of the application
that have changed are downloaded, and then the full, updated
application is reinstalled from a new side-by-side folder.
I was looking into accomplishing the same needs and came across this library which can do what you're asking for;
https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows
There's a lot of configuration, but what you're asking for is not trivial, but maybe you can get some ideas.
For our needs; we're going have our build server (teamcity) create an MSI using a Wix project then the app will download and execute the MSI. Once we go to production we'll move MSI hosting over to some more enterprise-y CDN type setup.

Programmatically Installing Windows Service from Application

I currently have a windows service that needs to run in the background while a main application I have written handles UI and other tasks. I install and maintain the GUI application using ClickOnce Deployment and would like to find a way to bundle my Windows Service in as well.
They are in separate projects at the moment since I was still learning how to use the Windows Service.
My question is, is it possible given MyService.exe that I install and start MyService.exe from MyApp.exe? I can assume that I have access to InstallUtil.exe and could write a script to install and run it manually, but I would like a cleaner solution if there is one.
The only resources I've found all seem to assume I want to have the Service install itself, which is not the case.
In general, ClickOnce can't be used to install services. There is typically a lack of permissions, but also the location is incorrect, etc. For details, see MSDN on Choosing Between ClickOnce and Windows Installer for more details.
If you want to install a service, you should do a traditional installation.

C#: Making an Installer that installs both a WPF application (ClickOnce) and a Windows Service

I currently have a VS Solution with 2 projects: a WPF application and a Windows Service.
Now, I have managed to get ClickOnce working in installing my WPF application, but I also want a Windows Service to be installed (the one in the project) during this installation.
I have found ways how to programmatically start a windows service with C# code, but is there any way to incorporate this in my ClickOnce installation (because I need ClickOnce's benefit of automatic updates and such)?
I don't think you can deploy a windows service via ClickOnce in a normal fashion.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winformssetup/thread/1bb64760-9622-4ca6-a1a6-3ce53e641f21
ClickOnce deploy a Windows Service?
Please check DDay Update library it might give you ClickOnce stuff for updates, but first install you've got to do using another too.
Can you execute a process during the ClickOnce install? You might be able to write the service using Topshelf and then execute MyService.exe /install from ClickOnce.

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