I'm currently working in VS2017 on a solution with multiple C# and C++ projects.
The installer project has the C++ redistributable as a prerequisite, with the option to download it from the component vendor's site.
Some of the clients want to be able to install the application without an internet connection.
The normal thing would be to put the package in the bootstraper and check the download from the same location as my application; the problem is every time Microsoft updates something with this library, compiling the application would work, but installation will have the old redistributable.
Is there any check to include Visual Studio libraries that are used when building the application, which ever version these may be?
I am trying to create a Windows setup file for my .NET project. My IDE is Rider.
Can I use ClickOnce within Rider?
I looked into Squirrel but it seems it does not provide a way to present user with prompts that are needed at the installation, but the update mechanism it has is very smooth. It also works for .NET Framework but doesn’t work for .NETCoreApp so I would need to implement the installer and updater as separate applications.
What are my other options if I wish to stay with Rider only?
I just made my first C# application in Visual Studio 2012 and I want to export it in some way so other people could use it in they computers (including computers without Visual Studio 2012). How can I do it? I'm new at C# and I couldn't find anything that I could understand. Can someone explain or indicate some site with a good (and maybe didactic) explanation on how it works? I have only made C/C++ programs by now, and they I just needed the .exe file, but, based on what I could find, I need something else to send a C# program to others to use.
Sory for the bad English and thanks for those who help.
Right-click the project in VS 2012, and choose Publish... from the context menu. Publishing to a file lets you create an installer:
Choose a location in the file system to which you would like to save the installer
Click [Finish]
Wait for the publishing operation to complete
A Setup.exe installer file will be created at the location that you have selected in the first step of the publish wizard. Share the installer with the people to whom you would like to give your application.
After building your project, you will find an EXE file in bin\(Debug or Release)
Check also the .net framework that it is required in order for c# apps to run. You can find what framework your app is build in projext properties. If the target computer has an old os (XP) maybe the .net framework needs also to be installed
You need any computer that wants to run it to be windows, and running the correct version of the .net framework. If it's a program that's created with VS2012, that'll be .net 2.0 to 4.5.2. After that, you need to find the location of your program, and you can just copy the debug folder that you are currently running from, and your program will work.
i am using VS 2010 and i am having trouble with clickonce deployment.
My goal is to Distribute application on DVD for users without internet connection to be able to install it. So it needs to include full installer of .NET framework 3.5 Client profile.
However, i am unable to achieve this.
From VS 2010 i choose publish wizard:
Specify location to publish this applicaton:
C:\ something\ something - this folder i will burn later to CD
How will users install application?
From CD{DVD
the application will check for updates from following location:
http://13874.w74.wedos.net/
And that is it, Publish wizard ends here.
So i create some aditional options:
Options->deployment
-Enable autorun for CDs
-Disable creation of publish.htm page
If i publish app, it is deployed to specified folder on my disk and can be installed from there.
But how do i include offline version of .net framework installer (I am Targeting .NET Framework 3.5)?
Thank you.
I managed to found solution for part of my question - how to include offline installer for .NET Framework 3.5. However, second part of my question - how to manage updates remains unanswered.
How to include .NET Framework offline installer for 3.5:
Under prerequisites (Properties->Publish->Prerequisites) make sure you have .Net framework 3.5 SP1 checked
Check radiobutton "Download from same location as my application" in lower part of prerequisities dialog.
Download .NET 3.5 full redistributable here http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=118080
Here comes the main part. It is not enough to just have .net redistributable on same location as your app, there is slightly more to do.
Unpack contents of installer from command line (command - "dotNetFx35.exe /x")
Choose directory to unpack via dialog shown.
Copy CONTENTS of subdirectory WCU\dotNetFramework to
a)x86 systems: %Program Files%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1
b)x64 systems: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1
In the same locations there should be xml file prduct.xml, edit it as folows:
A) Paste the following into the < PackageFiles > element:
B) Find the element for < PackageFile Name="dotNetFX30\XPSEPSC-x86-en-US.exe" and change the PublicKey value to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
C) Find the element for < PackageFile Name="dotNetFX30\XPSEPSC-amd64-en-US.exe" and change the PublicKey value to the same as in step above
Save the product.xml file
Thats it. Before that, when you attemp to publish it from visual studio it throws errors that it is unable to find variaus parts of .net 3.5 framework. Now it should work fine.
More information at:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/2/8/A2807F78-C861-4B66-9B31-9205C3F22252/VS2008SP1Readme.htm#General%20Issues
Section 2.3.1.1. - Enable Samesite for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 bootstrapper package
I develop application in C# with MSVC 2010 Express, with Forms/WPF/etc.
Application consist of some private assemblies (maybe DLLs) and .exe file. It uses .NET 4 features.
How I deploy this application to other computers? Of course if they have .NET 4 I just can send zip of .exe with .dlls and it work. But if they don't have .NET at all (on Win XP machine)? Or maybe they have lower version of .NET? Should I point them to install .NET from internet or package it with my app or what?
Thanks
There is click-once deploy from microsoft. It automates most of the tasks, including making sure you have the right .Net version and updating the app if a new version of your app is available.
You should create a installer package. If you are using the express versions of visual studio, you can use some free tools for this like WiX or Inno Setup. WiX is perhaps a difficult option to start with, but has a lot of flexibility. There are tutorials and example projects to modify to adapt them to your needs.
http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/
This tools create installers that can check if a certain version of the .NET framework is installed on the user computer, among other conditions. You can also include the .NET redistributable in your package, or point the user to download and install it.
We try to keep deployment as simple as possible, and one of the things we do is to ensure our application is just a single executable, no support files needed.
We several steps to get there:
Make sure all dependent resource files are stored in embedded resources where possible, and not on disk
Use ILmerge to link all assemblies into a single executable
Optional - obfuscate the assembly
Optional - If some parts cannot be ILMerged or obfuscated, forcing us to have multiple files, we use Xenocode's PostBuild to link all files into a single executable. Xenocode offers a virtual filesystem to do this. This also allows framework embedding so your app will run on a clean Windows install - no dependencies need to be installed :-)
Wrap the single executable into an msi installer using WiX
Wrap the single executable into click once deployment. For this we also use a little stub launcher executable which starts the main application, allowing us to reuse the same main application executable
Create a zip file of just the single file executable for manual installation.
We the following on our downloads site:
the MSI installer - we prefer people to use this one
A zip file with the Xenocoded (single file) executable
A zip file with the Xenocoded (single file) executable including the .NET Framework
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324733
Yes, you should point them to install .NET. Otherwise it won't be possible for them to run your application.
You didn't say what type of clients they are (are you making a small app for your friends to use or are they paying customers), but whatever the case may be, I'm always completely against sending a zip file with an instruction document describing what to do with it and what folder to extract it to. As Remy said, ClickOnce is not a bad idea, but I've found it to be a bit of a pain to set up (once you get it set up, though, it works just fine). On the other hand, a Deployment project is simpler and if I were you, that would be the first thing I'd explore.
Use xenocode here
http://spoon.net/Studio/
No need to install anything.
It converts your exe to Native code indirectly and you can run anywhere on windows system.
It also has some option of adding framework inside and the total exe size will be somewhere arround 10MB + Your application exe size..
Thanks
yes! you have to give some general instruction about prerequisites to run your software and in that you can mention the Framework version 3.5 or 4.0 and other utilities you require.
please refer this document for Choosing a Deployment Strategy in Visual studio 2010 may this can help you
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e2444w33.aspx
when you package you application,you shoud include the .NET Framework
Check out Inno : http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php
It's free and pretty simple.
OTOH I've seen QTTabBar using it in its' codebase and it was literally one single text file (setup.iss). Let me see if I can find URL to their SourceForge page so you can see the source and the build ... There is it http://qttabbar.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/qttabbar/trunk/Install/ If you grab the source tree you can probably re-fit it for your app in a day.