Create a standalone .exe file - c#

I have a console application built in visual studio 2010.
When I actually build the project I am getting .exe file under \bin\Debug\MyProj.exe.
When I Paste and run this .exe from other location it is expecting other files too.
Any thoughts how can I make this as Stand alone exe file.

There should be other DLL's in the Debug library. You need those to run your exe.
If there are no DLL's there, make sure you set the 'Copy local' property of the required references to True, and build again.
If you want to make a standalone program, you should create a new Setup project in your solution. Include the Primary Output from your application project, and the setup should include the required DLL's automatically. Once you build the setup project, you can install your application as a standalone software.

You usually distribute application with bunch of DLLs, that's nothing bad.
But if you really want to make it a single exe, you can look here - same question is answered Embed .net dll in c# .exe . (Valid if your DLLs are also .Net assemblies)
Edit: If you need to easily distribute app to not-very-computer-friendly users, consider also trying ClickOnce. It's roughly something like Java Web start - only disadvantage is that you can't get "Windows Logo" certificate from Microsoft for projects distributed that way.

I don't have Visual Studio 2010 to experiment with, but in Visual Studio 2019 this worked:
Project Properties->Configuration Properties->Advanced->Use of MFC->Use MFC in a Static Library

Related

How to release a project with dlls and packages used in it in Visual Studio C# to use it on another PC?

I've just finished my Windows Forms App project in Visual Studio using C#. I know I need to release it. To do so I need to go from Debug mode to Release above in VS and then just click on F6. After that I have a folder with an exe file in it. But in my project I use a dll library which was copied on my PC and registered by regsvr32.exe in cmd. Next in VS I went to Solution Explorer and added the library in References by writing the path to it. I also use two packages which were installed by NuGet Package Manager.
My program is developed to use it by my coworkers so I have to distribute it to them. The problem is that I don't know how to prepare my app for it.
I'm reading lots of different articles about the release step but I'm getting more confused. People usually write that I can just copy the exe file in the release folder and use it in another PC after installing .Net there. But in my project there are also the three libraries and without them my program won't work in another PC. I can copy and register the first library on other computers but what about the last two? How to set up them correctly?
About the first library, I put it in a folder created by me manually in the C directory of my computer. The release folder is in another place. And when registering this library in cmd and then adding it to References, I specified the path to it. It means if the path has been changed, it won't be possible to use the library in the project. I tried some times. It's not convenient and when placing the app in another PC without VS where I can specify the path, my program won't probably work. So it would be very convenient to place this library next to the release folder and after putting it in another PC, the path to the library wouldn't cause any problems.
To sum up, I'm looking for the way to easily and conveniently distribute my program to users. Of course, I want to put my app and the libraries together in a PC, not to set up them separately and then tune them separately to make the program work there. Might there a way to release it as an app with all the libraries connected to it?
I feel it must be easy but I'm not so experienced. I'm sorry for that.
It is recommended that you use ClickOnce deployment:
ClickOnce deployment is a Microsoft technology that allows you to easily deploy your Windows Forms App along with all its dependencies. With ClickOnce deployment, you can publish your application to a web server or a file share and users can install it by simply clicking on a link. ClickOnce will automatically download and install all the required DLLs and packages on the user's computer.
Of course, there are some third-party packaging software that I can't recommend. If ClickOnce doesn't help you, I'll think of other ways.

Cannot reference dll file in project

This is my first time trying to use a dll file in visual studio (2012) so I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I am trying to get sqlite into my project following this tutorial
I right click on the project in the Solution Explorer and click Add References
I then click on the browse tab and find where I have the dll file,click ok then ok in visual studio and I get an error saying Reference to *dll path* could not be added. Please make sure the file is accessible and that is it a valid assembly or COM component.
did I miss a step here or something?
The file is located in my dropbox folder (where my whole project is) and the project is a windows store application is that matters
Not a direct answer but instead of referencing the dll directly, you should install the Visual Studio extension for SQLite. The extension includes the dlls for all platforms (x86, x64, ARM). It also makes sure that the right dll is used for the platform that you are building for.
After you install the extension, it will appear in the references dialog under Windows -> Extensions. Also, when you use the extension, you must change all your project build configurations to be x86 or x64 (on the desktop) or Arm (for Arm devices). It will fail to build if you use AnyCPU.

Create Setup Project DLL files Information

I finished a project.I am trying create a setup .
My Problem is that :after I create setup project dll files that I used in project added to same folder with my .exe file like
ApplicationFolder(Folder)
Devexpress.Data.dll
Devexpress.Util..dll
.
.
project.exe
but I want to get it different folder.
like
ApplicationFolder(Folder)
MYDLLFILES(Folder)
project.exe(exe file)
how can I make this? Thanks a lot
This is not only a problem of setup. unless you are already handling this in the app.config and/or with appdomain.assemblyresolve event your application will not work at all on the user's machines once those required references will not be available in the same folder if the .exe file.
Surely you could isolate every single file and tell the setup project where to put it but your program has to be modifief to then look for those files in those other locations.
I accidentally faced this problem today, I want to add some separate dll files into the setup package (I have to do this because I can't add reference of these dll files into my C# program , these dll files are of 3rd-party software).
I did as following:
Right click on Setup Project > Add > Assembly and then browse to dll which I need, then press OK button.
These dll files will be included into Setup project, and will be packaged into setup file also.
Hth.
The problem is that Visual Studio setup projects will automatically include referenced DLLs for you so you won't be able to customize their location with these setup projects.
See also the following articles by DevExpress:
How to deploy WinForms applications on client machines
How to distribute applications which use Developer Express .NET Windows Forms controls
The second article explains how to register DLLs copied to a different location.
By the way we're also also deploying a big app using these VS setup projects and our base installation folder is full of DevExpress and other DLLs. I agree that it looks totally ugly and I'd also prefer a clean structure with a lib subfolder, but nobody cares about that. Customers don't start our application from the installation folder, they use the shortcuts.

Compile to stand alone exe for C# app in Visual Studio 2010

Similar to this question
Compile to a stand-alone executable (.exe) in Visual Studio
But nothing there works for me.
I've written an app that is very simple in C#. I want this to compile to a stand alone exe file, but I can't seem to find the proper settings to do this. Everything compiles into a publish folder and there is only the setup/install files.
Thanks!
You just compile it. In the bin\Release (or bin\Debug) folder, the .exe will be in there.
If you're asking how to make an executable which does not rely on the .NET framework at all, then that's a lot harder and you'll need to purchase something like RemoteSoft's Salamader. In general, it's not really worth the bother: Windows Vista comes with .NET framework 2.0 pre-installed already so if you're worried about that, you can just target the 2.0 framework (then only XP users would have to install the framework).
I am using visual studio 2010 to make a program on SMSC Server. What you have to do is go to build-->publish. you will be asked be asked to few simple things and the location where you want to store your application, browse the location where you want to put it.
I hope this is what you are looking for
Are you sure you selected Console Application? I'm running VS 2010 and with the vanilla settings a C# console app builds to \bin\debug. Try to create a new Console Application project, with the language set to C#. Build the project, and go to Project/[Console Application 1]Properties. In the Build tab, what is the Output path? It should default to bin\debug, unless you have some restricted settings on your workstation,etc. Also review the build output window and see if any errors are being thrown - in which case nothing will be built to the output folder, of course...
You can use the files from debug folder,however if you look at app debug informations with some inspection software,you can clearly see "Symbols File Name" which can reveals not wanted informations in path to the original exe file.
Press the start button in visual studio. Then go to the location where your solution is stored and open the folder of your main project then the bin folder. If your application was running in debug mode then go to the debug folder. If running in release mode then go to the release folder. You should find your exe there.
You can get single file EXE after build the console application
your Application folder - > bin folder -> there will have lot of files
there is need 2 files must and other referenced dlls
1. IMG_PDF_CONVERSION [this is my application name, take your application name]
2. IMG_PDF_CONVERSION.exe [this is supporting configure file]
3. your refered dll's
then you can move that 3(exe, configure file, refered dll's) dll to any folder that's it
if you click on 1st IMG_PDF_CONVERSION it will execute the application cool way
any calcification please ask your queries.

VS console app - compile all libraries into an exe

I've created a basic console app in Visual Studio 2008, which references an external assembly.
When I publish and install the project, both the executable and the external assembly are installed in the target folder.
Is it possible to compile the project, and have all referenced assemblies included in the main executable - so there is only one file to distribute?
Thanks for any help,
Franko
You can use ILMerge to merge the assemblies for deployment. This lets you keep them separate during development, but put them all into one .exe file when you ship.
You can use ILMerge from Microsoft for this, or the Cecil tool from the Mono project.
You can create a setup file. so you can redistribute only one file.
But it still going to be installed into a folder with each assembly separated.
You can also consider placing your assemblies into the GAC.
If you find ILMerge is not enough because your app needs files other than .net assemblies, I have found that packaging it as self extracting exe using MakeSFX works nicely. It sounds unlikely but with correct command line flags the self extracting bit is completely transparent and it runs just like any other application.

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