I want to develop a small utility for windows and I prefer doing that in c# because it is easier (I'm a java developer).
The utility will be available for download by many people and I assume some of them will not have the .net framework installed (is this assumption correct, say I target win xp and above?)
My question is: can a c# application be compiled in a way that it will not require the .net framework installed?
Normally, you will need the .NET Framework being installed on the target system. There is no simple way around that.
However, certain third-party tools such as Xenocode or Salamander allow you to create stand-alone applications. See this related question:
Is there some way to compile a .NET application to native code?
As these solutions are not straight-forward and require commercial products I would recommend you to create a simple Visual Studio Setup and Deployment project. In the properties of the project you should include the .NET Framework as a pre-requisite. The setup.exe created will then automatically download and install the .NET Framework prior to installing your application.
No, it will need the .Net framework installed. Note though that you will need only the redistributable version, not the SDK.
A minor aside - but in this scenario, consider developing the utility in Silverlight - it has a much smaller footprint and is supported on a number of operating systems. This might allow you to get the coverage including people who don't already have .NET.
If you need "normal" .NET, then "Client Profile" is perhaps an option.
You can probably also include the .net framework installer in your application.
In a related question, Can you compile C# without using the .Net framework?, it's mentioned you could do this using mkbundle from mono. I haven't tried it myself so I can't comment on if it's the way you should go, but you may want to consider it.
Related
for strict constrains in my scenarios, I have very few room to install my application, and .net framework is not installable (any version).
If the application is really simple (more or less), it is possible to create an application in visual studio (in c#) with no dependendency from the .net framework?
Thanks!
Short answer: NO.
There is no way to create a .NET application without any framework.
It is possible to compile a C# app such that it has no dependencies on any of the built-in .NET types & libraries, by using the /nostdlib switch (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fa13yay7.aspx). You then need to supply your own System namespace.
However, this doesn't remove the need for the .NET framework on the target machine if you use the standard C# compiler. As well as containing the built-in types, the framework also includes the JIT IL compiler, the CLR extra, which all .NET executables and dll's are reliant on.
There are ways of compiling C# code such that it doesn't need the framework though. The Xamarin product for example (http://xamarin.com/), supports compiling C# code to native iOS apps, which are wholely independent of the .NET framework. I'm not aware of any equivalent for "desktop" OS's though.
Writing, compiling and running a C# program without .Net means running a special C# compiler that produces native code instead of managed code. I think such a compiler exists from WinRT for mobile phones, which uses COM instead of .Net (And C++/CX instead of C++/CLI). Code it produces does not depend on the .Net Framework, but does depend on the WinRT runtime.
You may create mono GTK# application and then use mkbundle to generate independent executable. You can use Visual Studio to build your logic and use Xamarin studio to build GTK# GUI. For more information about mkbundle see this and this.
To reply to your query. It really is not possible to create a .Net application without the .Net frame work. And moreover if you have installed Visual Studio by default it would have asked you to install .Net framework or would have installed it by default. In that scenario there is already .Net framework installed in your PC.
Thanks
I have created a new application on C# 2010. After creating a Setup file I came to know that for installation purposes user must have a dot net framework. Is there any way I can get rid of installing dot net framework on a user computer. Each time I try to install my application on the user computer it redirects to install the dot net framework. Any suggestion?
Well that's a problem; because of the design of .NET applications.
Here's some references for you:
Visual C#
"C# (pronounced "C sharp") is a programming language that is designed for building a variety of applications that run on the .NET Framework." [first sentence]
Intro to C# and .NET
As the comments on the question attempt to imply, the .NET Framework is required in order to execute .NET applications.
You have two choices, really:
Require that users have the .NET Framework installed. This is the most common choice, for reasons that will become clear in a moment. It's not unheard-of to have such requirements. It's similar to requiring that a user have Windows installed in order to run your Windows application.
Distribute the .NET Framework with your application installer. This is possible, but less often used because the .NET Framework is large compared to the average application. However, if you must do this, then the option is at least available. Some quick Googling brought me to this helpful blog post.
This isn't possible. C# is built on the .NET framework, so any C# app requires that a version of .NET be available. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework#History, you can see what .NET framework versions are available in various versions of Windows. The short story is that XP doesn't include anything, Vista includes 3.0, and Windows 7 includes 3.5. If you build for one of these versions, then on those OSes, your users won't need to install anything extra. Using the Client Profile instead of the full .NET can also help reduce or eliminate installs your users will need to do.
Unfortunately No. Its not possible.
To explain it simple terms.
Suppose if you have written only 1 Line of code where you would have simply declared an int variable, who will tell OS that it should create a space in memory?
That framework does exactly that creates basic environment to run your app in a System.
OOPs says about Real-world modeling and Relationships, so let me give you one from it.
Think yourself to be the C# app and Mother Nature/Environment(Greenry) to be .Net Environment.(.Net is called an Environment)
Can you survive without mother nature? From first second that you are in this world, you breathe. Who provides you that oxygen. MOTHER NATURE
While creating installation bundle you can add dot net frame work exe file as prerequisites, then while installing your application it can check whether the system having .net framework or not. if it is not installed it your application can install the frame work.
When you are using managed languages to writing applications you agreed to use their vm, c# codes compiles to IL which needs dot net framework for executing.
.net framework by default exists on windows 7,8,8.1 and 10 and I don't think that this is a challenge.
but if you insist on it so there is a way by using Mono, just remove features that does not support in mono from your project.
first install mono and cygwin, then copy your exe and mono.dll file to a folder, be sure that your file name is not long because in some cases bundling faild,now you can start bundling using mkbundle command.
after bundling finished you have a exe file that can run without .net framework
hope this help you
I have the same issue and want the app to setup using the existing dot net framework version (4.6), because the app setup requires 4.7.2 version that the PC doesn't meet the requirements
I was wondering that is there any way to run application made in visual studio c# with out installing the .NET framework on client end.
One idea came to my mind may be it is crazy,that is the application that we make depends on the library files that we use in it for example System.Windows.Forms etc etc and
when ever we use some extra dll file it gets copy in the location where setup is installed in short instead of keeping the whole dot net frame work can we just specify the dependencies and export them?
Since you also need the runtime to be present, it's not that simple.
In short, (as #Mitch said), this is not possible.
No.
Windows 7 machines have .NET 3.5 installed as part of OS installation.
Well there's the Salamander .NET Linker, but it's not free.
The short answer to your question is no, this isn't possible.
However, depending on what your reasons are for not wanting to install the framework, you may find the .NET Framework Client Profile useful. This is a cutdown version of the main framework which removes libraries you may not need and therefore reduces the diskspace and resources it requires on the client machine.
Alternatively, maybe Silverlight could meet your needs - whilst the Silverlight runtime would need installing, this is again a cutdown version of the CLR and can be delivered through a browser.
What about using client profile feature of .net 4. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc656912.aspx
It is same like you want to open Microsoft Word 2007/2010 files with extension (.docx) with Microsoft Word 2003 that only provides files with extension (.doc). :):):)
How can I check what objects, tools, variables, anything... are used from .NET 2.0 in a C# application.
How can I get a C# application run without .NET 2.0 ?
UPDATE:
sorry, I didn't clarify enought. Here's my situation: I have developed a pretty simple application in C#: embeded browser which displayes static webpages with an option of searching inside of these html pages. I'm using simple textbox, buttons components for this.
The application will be distribuited for people wich have very old PCs, even with windows 95. I would like the app to be runable on it, or at least on win 98, without telling the people to install .NET 2.0, as the users don;t really have PC usage skills :) .
I'm using a dataGridView as well.
You can have a look at this : http://www.remotesoft.com/linker/
"The mini-deployment tool puts
together the minimum set of CLR
runtime files and dependent assemblies
that can be simply copied to a single
folder on a target machine, and your
application runs as if the whole
framework is installed. Since the
installation is isolated into a single
folder, there will be no conflicts
with future .NET installation. When
linking is used for the dependent
assemblies, it will further reduce the
file size."
You may need to clarify a bit more.. do you want the app to run without .Net at all? Or you want it to run in .Net 3.5 without .net 2.0 bits?
If its the latter, then simply don't reference assemblies that are compiled in .net 2.0 (check the properties on the reference you have added). If its the former, then its really not feasable. Yes its possible, but it means deploying parts of the framework with your app, but then, you'd be deploying all the bits, including the 2.0 bits.
Your're question really needs more information though, it doesn't make much sense currently. Sorry. =)
To make sure it runs without .NET 2.0, compile it with the .NET 1.1 compiler.
But this seems like not a good idea. I'd recommend revisiting your requirements.
Win98 wasn't shipped with .NET. Using .NET v1.1 won't get you much more platform penetration than .NET 2.0, if any.
IT looks like windows 98 supports the .net framework. See this answer for details:
OS Compatibility for various .NET Framework versions
You cannot run a .NET application (i.e., that uses the CLR) if you haven't installed the corresponding .NET Framework binaries (i.e., that contains the CLR) directly or indirectly.
Period.
How do I only include certain dlls of the .Net framework which are used in my program along with the setup project instead of installing the whole framework?
Thanks
You want to deploy a .NET Application to a server, that doesn't have .NET installed and only have it install the specific System.* dlls required for you're application ?
I'd be pretty sure that you can't do this. There's more to the Framework than just a bunch of DLLs in the GAC. (e.g. CLR, registry entries etc...). You'll need to install the framework on the client machine
I would recommend the .NET Client Profile, described here. "The .NET Framework Client Profile is a subset of the full .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 that targets client applications. It provides a streamlined subset of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Forms, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and ClickOnce features. This enables rapid deployment scenarios for WPF, Windows Forms, WCF, and console applications that target the .NET Framework Client Profile."
I'm pretty sure that can't be done. C# is managed code, and therefore needs the CLR and the framework to support it.
Unlike other languages that get compiled to binary, .NET code gets compiled to MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language), so it cannot be run directly by the hardware.
Since .Net 3.5 SP1 there has been the option of using the .NET Framework Client Profile. This enables you to distribute a subset of the full .Net package in certain supported scenarios. It still requires you to use an installer though - you can't just distribute individual assemblies. The benefit is a significant reduction in package size and deployment time.
No. In order for your pogram to run, the target machine must have the appropriate version of the .Net framework installed on it. You don't need to bundle the entire SDK with your application but you do need to include the appropriate .Net framework redistributable for your application.
I know of the Salamander tools... but haven't used them.
From their site: "Salamander .NET Linker, Native Compiler and Mini-Deployment Tool; Deploy .NET w/o Framework"
You can use tools like Xenocode to link the assemblies.
There's a free linker (from Microsoft, I think), but it's name escapes me.
This is not possible. You have to have proper .Net framework runtime in place on the target machine. What you have asked for is possible with 3rd party libraries/assemblies but not with .Net runtime.
Have you looked at ngen?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6t9t5wcf(VS.80).aspx
It would be possible to use reflection to identify the dependent assemblies and "link" them with your deployment. I've used a similar technique in Java land.