So I wrote an application and created an installer. When I tried to install it on other machines, the app simply wouldn't work. After messing around with it for a while, it seemed like I needed to select visual C++ Runtime Libraries as a prerequisite. Now I'm wondering if I may need other prereqs. How on earth do I know what are all the prereqs an app will need?
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I have a utility editor application that goes with another main application. The main application is a Windows EXE usually, but there is also a Unix and a Mac version. This application was written by another company for us. It is not C#.
We have a utility editor program that works with the main application. The original version is a WinForms app, but it is showing it's age and some of the functionality no longer works on today's Windows. So the app is being rewritten in WPF with .NET Core 3.1, with the hope that maybe we will also compile it for Unix and Mac someday, if possible. They want it to be a stand-alone app so it can more easily be used by students at different universities and other organizations. Click-Once, MSIX, and copying larger folders are not options. They want a standalone EXE(s) they can upload/distribute for 32 and 64 bit Windows initially, often sent on DVD.
But I am having build issues for WPF. I have tried to publish the app, and the VS Installer add-on, but they were failures, which appears to be the common complaint on the internet. For some reason, you always end up with a DLL application instead of an EXE, and it doesn't run and I am not alone per the discussions on the internet. I am thinking is has something to do with the .NET Core but I just don't know enough about it to know how to resolve it. One article hinted that the DLL might be the portable part, and then you need a platform specific module that runs it??? Did I misunderstand that? If so, How do I create one?
I am now looking into third party tools. It appears Wix might be worth exploring, but the learning curve is billed as large, so the boss is nervous. I am also not sure about the Unix or Mac builds. Will those be different tools yet again?
According to this it probably is, but this is 2 years old:
How to build installers for .NET Core app?
Has anyone been successful in building a WPF .NET Core 3.1 setup.EXE that actually installs a usable application? If so, what tools did you use? Can you provide any advice for what I might be missing? I can get the setup.exe, but the app that it installs is not usable.
I would be ever so grateful for any help you can provide. This community has been SOOO helpful to me for many years and I can usually find the answer from previous questions without ever asking anything myself. So I have no rating. But I have been a user for over 10 years! Please don't hold that against me? But this time I am stumped. It could just be I am tooo new to .NET Core (first app in it) and I don't have the right search terms. I am usually a Web developer. But Web is not an option here.
Thank you for your consideration,
MLY
A bit late, you might have already figured out a solution, but for anyone else wondering.
One way is to use ClickOnce.
If using Visual Studios, you should be able to right click your main project and select "Publish". Then you should be able to click "New" publish profile. From the options that come up you can either select "ClickOnce", and then you should be presented with some settings. For you, most importantly, would be two of those tabs, "Install location" and "Configuration". In the former you can choose "From cd/dvd, or usb" since you mention that is a method of delivering the executable you will need.
And in the latter, you can select "Deployment mode" to be "self-contained", and under "File-publish options" choose "Produce single file".
This should ultimately produce an EXE for your application that can be used as a standalone.
Note that using VS19 there are some issues that seem to not allow this to happen https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/issues/11351
However using VS22 this does not seem to be an issue, I at least have not experienced it there.
For more information
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/wpf/app-development/deploying-a-wpf-application-wpf?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/deployment/quickstart-deploy-using-clickonce-folder?view=vs-2022
Also, F.Y.I, WPF applications only run on windows, so you wont be able to deploy them on Mac or Unix at all. There is some community support for using Xamarin.Forms with WPF, but if you need multi-OS deployment you should not start developing this application with WPF in the first place.
I tried to import a winform solution file from VS code (windows) to monodevelop (Linux) but it failed. The error is as follows:
Error while trying to load the project '/home/virtuall_kingg/Camera_GUI/Camera_GUI/Camera_GUI.csproj':
File not found: /home/virtuall_kingg/Camera_GUI/Camera_GUI/Camera_GUI.csproj
I added Camera_GUI.csprojfile also but still the error is same.
Can anybody guide me on how to import solution to mono?
This winform project has become pain in my neck.
Is building the GUI using gtk# in Ubuntu from scratch is the only way?
EDIT: Now you can substitute mono with .NET 5, the common .net framework for all platforms.
You are asking multiple questions here. In Linux you have (limited) support for WinForms through Mono. Depending on how complex is your project, you could port it without modification. If there are p/Invokes, then you won't for sure be able to port it.
Yep, in Linux the "other" big option is Gtk#, which has a long history. If you would want to port the project starting from scratch, it'd be a good option, but it'd involve porting your classes from working with WinForms to Gtk#, which is not impossible, but not trivial either. The feasibility of this would mainly depend on how good that project is architected. Do you have bussiness logic and views separated? If the answer is no, then the process will be tedious, and as hard as lengthy.
MonoDevelop is an IDE for C#, and Visual Studio for Mac is roughly MonoDevelop. It certainly works in Linux... as well as Visual Studio Code. So, there is no need to change anything in that front if you just need to port your code to Linux.
Okay, now, what's the road to follow? I think the best one is to try Mono with WinForms. It'd maybe involve simplify some code in the user interface part, but is certainly feasible. Just remember that you need to install Mono, and if your project is set to target .NET Core, then you need to create another project from scratch and set it to target .NET Framework.
Now, the specific question is that MonoDevelop complains about a missing Camera_GUI.csproj. This means that you've only picked a few files, but not the whole solution. Any IDE (Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Rider...), would complain about the same thing. Either remove the project from the solution, or add the project with all its files to the directory in which the solution sits.
So, the answer is: don't change anything if you don't need to retarget your project. Just move to a Linux box or virtual machine, with the whole project and open it in Visual Studio Code Rider, Rider, or MonoDevelop it does not matter. From within the IDE, remove those projects that make no sense in Linux (i.e., windows installer), and then recompile and start the program. Polish those parts of the user interface that need tweaking and that's it.
Should you need more help, please be more specific and provide more info.
The application I'm talking about consists of vb6 (80%) and c#, .Net Framework 4.0 (20%).
All new components are created with c#. With Microsoft Interop Forms Toolkit 2.1 we create the COM UserControls that we later embed in vb6. For Forms we use normal classes to create and open in vb6 (COM Visible project).
To create the setup we use wise.
Locally everything works fine - The problems only occur when we install the application on a non-developer machine with the wise created setup.
We added a class to open a c# Form to an existing interop toolkit project. It works fine on the developer machine and also when we make a new installation on a pc(non-dev-machine). The new class is just used to open the form.
But when we update our application to a newer version, that class is not working anymore. We have to uninstall the old version and install the new version to make it work again.
Anyone had a similar problems before?
I'm grateful for any advice
This seems like it is an issue with Windows Installer and the sequencing during the upgrade. Does your application allow side by side installs (e.g. Version 1 and Version 2 can be installed at the same time) or does your installer upgrade earlier versions to the latest version? You might try logging the installation and reviewing the log file to see exactly what is happening during the install / upgrade process.
You can log an msi installation by invoking Msiexec from a command line.
This may provide greater insight and help focus your efforts to debugging the problem.
Edit
From what you've described it seems that on fresh installation the install works as expected. When you upgrade earlier versions it would seem that the COM Interop components are not registered properly. This could be an indication that the sequence of events is a little off with regards to when the components are copied to the machine and registered vs. when the existing product is removed. While not exactly identical, see this SO Question and answer for more details. Also, have a look at the RemoveExistingProducts action in Windows Installer for more information.
I would log an installation that you know works without issue (e.g. on a "clean" machine) and then log an installation that you know will fail (e.g. an upgrade) and then compare the two log files using a tool to see if the output is identical. If not, that gives you a clue as to where to look. If they are identical it might be time to engage with the vendor and see if they can assist with determining what's causing the issue.
I have to make a rather complex installer for a C# add-in for Word. I've been researching this for almost two days now and I still haven't found something that can do everything needed.
The main issue here is due to the constraints regarding prerequisites. They mustn't be included in the main installer to keep it small so they'll have to be downloaded.
Additionally, they have to be installed silently without bothering the user. It is ok to show a progress bar or something similar but nothing that requires user input.
After reading about the Windows Installer, Inno, bootstrapper packages and dotNetInstaller I have finally reached the conclusion that the later would be best suited for this scope. However, there's a nasty downside which I have yet to resolve: prerequisites checking.
Is there a standard way to check whether a Microsoft redistributable is installed? The add-in needs the following components:
Windows Installer 3.1
.Net Framework 3.5
PIA
VSTO
Furthermore, I haven't been able to find the direct URLs for these components. I'm wondering how Windows Setups in VS get them.
As a last resort I could host them somewhere to have them at a known location but I'd like to avoid that.
Furthermore, I haven't been able to find the direct URLs for these
components. I'm wondering how Windows Setups in VS get them.
If your using the Visual Studio Setup Project, you can embed them into the setup, and make them required for your application to be installed.
At least for the case of Windows Installer 3.1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Is there a standard way to check whether a Microsoft redistributable
is installed?
Checking the registry is a quick way.
I would first prompt the user about the downloads first because there would be an uproar if it secretly downloaded files without the users consent. It could also be used for malicious reasons if it were unsecure.
use this tool http://www.advancedinstaller.com/ for creating installer project it has the simple ui interface using which u can handel many comple scenarios in an easy way. U can purchase the tool or can use freeware edition
I have Visual C# 2008 Professional and have developed the first half of a C# application (console mode) with the second half in progress now (GUI).
I'm looking for an easy path to creating an installer for it. What are the steps that need to be taken to produce a professional installer?
There's a similar question here regarding the Express edition but I have Pro, and I would like as much as possible to stick with just the standard VS stuff (if you think you can convince me that a third party installer creator is much better than a VS-only solution, give it a shot, by all means).
Keep in mind that I have no interest in upgrading to VS2010 yet, even if it's a hundred times easier to create an installer. That can come later, when the revenue starts rolling in :-)
Also be aware that the GUI component of this application is a totally separate executable from the console part. The console part is a simple "open file 1, do some work on it, write file 2" type and the GUI is a fairly standard "open file, do some stuff" beast so there's no tricky or wildly undocumented behaviour happening.
Basically, I'm looking for (at least) the following:
professional looking installer.
ability to specify where the application files go.
changes to the registry to allow double-clicks on my file extension to open the GUI app with the file as an argument.
needs to install everything required (my stuff, .Net if required, and so on).
This might be a bit more rant than answer but here it goes.
If there is one thing severely broken with Windows client software it is the deployment of applications.
My experience comes from working on NovaMind - Even though I have spent weeks over the years on setup issues, I am by no means an expert in setup technology and I try to focus on our actual product whenever possible. We have used InnoSetup, Visual Studio Setup Project 2008/2010 and finally we have switched to the WiX + Tools approach.
How do you install an application nowadays?
Web Apps: Enter a URL in a browser to get to a web app.
Mac: Drag the downloaded file (same for x64 and x86) to the Applications icon on the Mac. Done.
Windows: Download the right file (user needs to know about x64 and x86 architecture), execute it. Click ‘Next’ a dozen times, wait for the UAC to show, click yes and then hope that the installer did the right thing.
I think that if Windows had a better deployment system, a sane marketplace/app store and a proper live update feature, web apps might never have gotten that popular in the first place. Of course that’s an exaggeration but I believe a lot of damage has been done to the Windows applications ecosystem by not providing a sane, usable deployment model and even now Microsoft seems to pay very little attention to this problem.
How do you update applications nowadays?
Web Apps: No need. It is up to date.
Mac: No inbuilt magic but there is a widely used and powerful solution called Sparkle.
Windows: You better roll your own because there is nothing substantial out there.
ClickOnce should have changed all of this but failed to be usable for real commercial applications.
Here is the rundown:
InnoSetup and other script based installations are simple but cannot produce a .msi file — Some companies require .msi files to automate network deployments. You will also need to have a Windows Installer (.msi) based setup if you want to get the Windows Logo certification.
Visual Studio Setup Project 2008/2010 gives you the basics easily and you can configure a bunch of things but once you want to do the unthinkable like use a high quality icon or include a changing set of files into your setup, you’re screwed. We also had to manually fix the PackageCode and ProductCode every single time we built an update since Visual Studio managed to somehow mess up the assembly versions and would leave an older assembly when updating, thus corrupting the application.
WiX is the de-facto way to create setups on Windows and even the Microsoft Office Setup is supposedly created with WiX. WiX is not simple. There are books available for WiX!
Unfortunately, WiX alone is still not a good solution. We use the dotNetInstaller bootstrapper project to ensure the .NET Framework is installed and to wrap the .msi file and the bootstrapper into a single .exe file that people can download.
With all this you are mostly fine. There are always strange cases were customers don’t have the Windows Installer installed (and thus cannot run the embedded .msi file) or where the .NET Framework installation fails.
Things we haven’t been able to do so far:
Localizing our installer!
Providing a single download for both x64 and x86 — at the moment we only create a x86 installer because we don’t want our users to think about x64 vs. x86.
Have a nice setup UI that also works with high DPI settings. I think this might just be a thing that is not supported in MSI setup.
There is a free product called SharpSetup which seems to address some of these problems and allows you to write a Winforms based UI, but SharpSetup does not come with a bootstrapper and requires the .NET Framework — you can however write your own C++ code to react in this situation.
For live updates we have rolled our own solution and after many issues it is working okay.
You might also want to listen to Scott Hanselman’s podcast episode with Rick Brewster were they talk about the setup and deployment of Paint.NET — While I congratulate Rick and the Paint.NET team on their good setup, the necessity of such a complex solution saddens me.
If you absolutely need to use .msi then I would recommend WiX to anyone who wants to create an installer on Windows, but in the end I am extremely frustrated with the deployment situation on Windows. I have wasted weeks of my time over the years with silly setup issues. With setup you can only lose. You won’t win any happy customers because your setup works but you will lose and frustrate a lot of them if it doesn’t.
Another option is using Inno Setup. It allows you to fully customize installations, where to stick files on the target machine, modify the registry, and all that jazz. If you're willing to spend a bit more time learning a bit about the scripting required to achieve the results you want, it's a very powerful tool. (fulfills all of your requirements and much more) And most importantly, it's free =)
I've been using Inno Setup for all of my larger .NET programs. When the installer runs, it checks to see if .NET is installed and if not, downloads and installs it. As well, I've modified registry and made associations with extensions like you mentioned. Including DLL's with the installer is simple as well - Inno will lump all of the required files into a single executable that takes care of everything.
Additionally, since Inno has been around since 1997, a number of editors have arisen that help make the scripting process a lot easier.
I use Advanced Installer, it is dead simply, and I use it, because of the limitations of VS.
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/
The "downside" is that for fully automatic installation of dependencies you have to pay ;-)
If you want to create your installer fully in Visual Studio, but don't mind using external tools to help you in that job then have a look at a program of mine called SharpSetup. It allows you to build GUI using C#/WinForms, whereas backend is WiX based (which in turn means using WIndows Installer).
Visual Studio 2008 has built-in setup/installer support.
Add a new project to your solution, and select the 'Setup Project' option from the 'Other project types > Setup and Deployment' category.
Have a look at Windows Installer Deployment overview, and a step-by-step walkthrough
If you know scripting languages you can check out NSIS as an alternative to VS. There's enough documentation that you can copy paste their example installer and replace their file locations with your own.
While I'm not install expert, I've used Wix successfully. It's complicated to say the least.
I don't see any of these products being mentioned that I've seen clients use successfully.
http://www.installaware.com/
http://www.flexerasoftware.com/products/installshield.htm
http://www.wise.com/Products/Installations/WiseInstallationStudio.aspx
All provide localization, file/app for double click association, Framework bootstrapping and target location to the best of my knowledge. InstallAware and Wise provide some form of autoupdate support.