How to make C# Application without setup Package - c#

I want need for the Winforms application to be installed. For that I am setting Copy Local to true for MY referenced dlls. I build My project and copy all the files in /Bin/Release or /Bin/Debug (as my project settings).
But Problem is I have to installed on the client's machine is the appropriate .Net Framework version.
is there any option to Winforms application to be run on the client's machine without .Net Framework installation. So I can copy in USB Drive and run it any where,

The short answer is No.
However, as you can see from the Microsoft site, if you are using a Microsoft Windows Version that is still supported, you have very good chances of having a Framework Version 3.0 or 3.5 preinstalled and already available.

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how to make project without .Net?

I am making a project in Visual studio in C# and when I tried running the built and published project on my friend's computer it gives an error that a certain version of .Net is not installed. I know that you can make projects in C++ and that doesn't require .Net, but I don't want to learn a new language and I mostly get youtube help from people that code in C#. anyone that knows Visual studio, can you tell me if there is a format I can make the project in? for example, Console application, NUnit test project, etc. thx
You can publish an application with self-contained enabled. This will build an application that includes all the dotnet framework files needed to run the application.
This does make the application bigger, even the most basic dotnet6 console app on my machines is ~10mb and when it's framework dependent it's 160kb
the settings used in the UI:
You can do this in console with:
dotnet publish -r win-x86 -c Release --self-contained true -p:PublishTrimmed=true -p:PublishSingleFile=true
Some good docs on trimming and publishing:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/trimming/trim-self-contained
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/single-file/overview
Note on trimmed=true option:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/trimming/incompatibilities
You need to download the framework that your project is using to be developed in and install it on your friends PC. This is normal and with more advanced software engineering you would build an installer that could install it as part of your applications installation.
For now, check what version of the .NET framework your application is build in. You can do this by going to your Solution Explorer window, right clicking on your solution and selecting properties. It will open a new tab menu on the left of your screen and you want to select the Application. In there you will see a drop down menu labelled "Target framework" which shows what framework your project is using, for example ".NET 5.0"
Once you know which framework your project uses, you can go to https://dotnet.microsoft.com/ to download the installer for that framework on your friends machine. Run the installer and once it has the relevant framework, it should run your application fine.
Additionally to what Istalri Skolir has said, you could also try to optimize for a certain Windows version, by using a preinstalled .NET version.
Here's a list of .NET Frameworks included in specific OS versions.
For example:
Windows 10 May 2019 Update (all editions) includes the .NET Framework
4.8 as an OS component, and it is installed by default
You will need to define the .NET Framework version in the project settings.

Published .Net Core App Warns to Install .Net Core but it's Already Installed

I made a WPF and Console application for someone to use on their private server which I can't have access to. I used Visual Studio 2019's built-in "Publishing Wizard" to create Framework Dependant single-file apps. When the person opened the WPF app they were greeted with the standard warning:
They clicked yes and to my understanding, they installed .Net Core 3.1 which is what the applications target.
After they restarted the computer they got the exact same warning again. I wasn't sure what was going on so I repackaged the apps as self-contained since the installed version of .Net Core was the same as what my applications were targeting.
That seemed to work for a little bit. We ran into some unrelated issues that I had to fix in the code on my end and then I re-published the projects and sent them out.
They tried to use the WPF application and they got the install warning again.
Now no matter what combination of options I pick in the "Publish Wizard" they keep getting the warning.
I'm not sure what to do.
Here's a picture of my publish settings
In my case I had the same issue, and the problem was that I was not deploying the file "MY_PROGRAM_NAME.runtimeconfig.json". After copying this file, which is present in the build output, the application is launched without problems.
Turns out the issue was the fact that the applications were targeting win-x86 and the user only had access to 64-bit runtimes of .Net Core.
For some reason, I thought it would be able to handle a 32-bit version even if it was running 64-bit runtimes.
I guess live and learn.

How to run mixed C#/CLR/C++ solution downgraded to .Net 4.0?

I have solution with mixed projects: C#, native C++ and CLR/C++ (this also requires some external DLLs). When I used default settings of VS 2012 and targeted for .Net 4.5 it worked fine. But then I had to downgrade it to .Net 4.0.
I succeed by building solution only for 32-bit and forcing C# main project to be built for 32-bit also (usually C# is used for "Any CPU").
With such settings in runs fine on 2 computers out of 3 I have for tests -- meaning on it fails. It claims it cannot load CLR/C++ project or one of it dependencies.
So my problem is how to run it or at least to know what failed exactly? From the list of installed programs I can see that on working computer I have either .Net 4.5 Multi-Target or I don't have .Net 4.5 at all (only 4.0). On computer which fails I have .Net 4.5 (period). So maybe my program tries to load some assemblies from .Net 4.5 instead of 4.0? But that is just guessing.
Question -- how to diagnose such twisted solution and how to fix it?
Install .Net framework 4.0 multi-targeting pack
Check references (including NuGet, if any)
When I encounter a similar problem I usualy check the following:
Do you have Visual Studio installed on any of those three machines? I guess it's installed on the two where your application is running. If so, I'll extend the list later.
Check the target of the C++/CLI project - it should be Win32 if you build for 32-bit.
Run the application without Visual Studio, wait until it fails and go to the Event Viewer to look for some usefull information there.
Get Process Monitor, run the application without Visual Studio, wait until it fails, stop monitoring and filter the list by the application name and failed operations and look there for some usefull information.

Does Visual Studio ClickOnce deployment automatically include the necessary .NET framework?

When using a ClickOnce installer, will it include the necessary .NET framework?
For instance, I want to distribute a WPF application that uses the System.ComponentModel namespace, which wasn't included until .NET 4.5. If I ran the ClickOnce on an older version of Windows that only had up through, say, .NET 3.0, would it still work?
The click once application will depend on the .NET 4.5 framework. You can include this as a redistributable through project settings -> publish -> prerequisites. In fact I think recent VS versions will already prepare a setup package to run through installing this during the pre-reqs section of your installer. You can even alter the location of where the redistributable package comes from.
In summary. It will "work" in that when someone runs your installer it will tell them they don't have the correct pre-reqs, and offer to install .NET 4.5
It will, if you install with the setup.exe installer. I haven't tried it for some time but it always worked like this.
If you link directly to *.application manifest, the .net framework and other dependencies will not be installed automatically.

Create a standalone exe without the need to install .NET framework

I'm a student and at the moment i'm doing an internship at a company. This internship is about analysing a project. For this project I have made a demo to show to the Marketing director. The demo I have made is a simple project created in Visual Studio 2010 in c# with Windows Forms and a connection to an Access database.
So now i have to show this demo to this director in a presentation but after this presentation the director wants the project on his computer so he can try and use it. The problem is now that the computers here in this company don't have .NET framework 4.0 and the computers are so protected over here that we can't install anything new. To install something you have to go through a procedure that takes weeks.
I have looked al over the internet but all i find is how to install the .NET framework.
Is there any possible way that I can create an standalone exe without the need to install .NET framework? Please help!
If you want to execute an application that is developed using Net Framework 4, you will need to have installed .Net Framework 4 on client computer.
Your application is compiled in CIL (Common Intermediate Language), so it needs to be interpreted by the framework engine.
It is the same if you want to execute a Java program. You will have to install the Java Machine.
The only way you don't need to install frameworks is programming native applications with C, C++.
C# now supports this with .NET Native.
Instead of compiling to intermediate language, it will compile to native code and run with statically linked .NET libraries. Therefore, there will be no .Net Runtime requirements for end-users.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dn642499.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn584397(v=vs.110).aspx
Only works for Windows 10
You can't build a C# executable without .NET Framework. Even if some resources indicate that you can, that only works in theory.
But you could use an older version of .NET Framework like .NET 4.0. If this doesn't work for you, you have to choose a language like C++ which doesn't require CLR at all.
Update 2018:
Do not target .NET 2.0 or 3.5. It's not compatible with the 4.x version. However, .NET 4.0 targeted binaries work with .NET Framework 4.0, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 and so on. So to reach maximum compatibility, compile with .NET 4.0. You will have to accept that some features will not be available, however, your binary will run virtually anywhere.
(2018: By now, .NET 2.0 - 3.5 has much lower distribution than 4.x)
Delphi is your solution, deploy native bin executables
YES, THIS IS POSSIBLE!
At least 3 ways exist:
1.you can check all OSes that you planning to run your app and build with such version of .NET. As Windows have a built-in framework libs.
Vista -.NET v3.0 -- All service packs
Windows 7 - .NET v3.5 -- All versions and service packs
Windows 8 - .NET v4.0 [Best choice if you are not sure]
Windows 8.1 - .Net v4.5
Windows 10 - .Net v4.6
as they are already pre-installed by default -- no extra install will be needed.
2.For windows 10 you can compile it into native code (but not into CIL) with ".NET Native". This is means that there are no .Net Framework will be needed for apps.
3.There is Turbo Studio (earlier Spoon and earlier XenoCode) that can wrap everything that your app needs and runs it in as a standalone.
From their site:
Turbo Studio
Run .NET Without .NET. Easily embed runtime dependencies such as .NET, Java, and SQL directly into virtual applications. Launch reliably on any desktop, regardless of underlying component installs.
You can use Mono and statically link you program, so your program don't need .NET CLR runtime and act as standalone program.
Mono Project
In more modern versions of .NET such as 5 and 6 and even with releases of .NET Core it had become a supported scenario to produce what is referred to as a single-file executable as well as a self-contained application.
As I understand it, these technologies take place of and build upon some of the capabilities that had been in the Mono development stack for a while now. Typically I've seen this feature used for applications which would be deployed to servers such as web sites and microservices however it could be used for scenarios such as the one that the original poster illustrates.
Using the .NET SDK publishing (producing the executable) for a single-file executable can be done using a command as the one below which comes directly from the documentation.
dotnet publish -r win-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true --self-contained true
For more details see Single file deployment and executable in the Microsoft .NET documentation site.
To be honest, it really isnt a problem nowadays. the .NET framework is found on almost every single computer nowadays, and you can even make a installer with Advanced Installer that silently install the .NET framework on your computer when you are installing the programme.

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