I have a Windows service I created and have the Setup project for it as well. Within that setup project I do have the installation path configured in the properties.
[ProgramFilesFolder]Company123\ServicesMonitor
When I install the service through Visual Studio it works as intended, it installs to the correct place (C:\Program Files (x86)\Company123\ServicesMonitor). But when I install it using the Setup project's actual .exe or .msi found in the Setup project's release folder, it just installs the service to my root E:\ drive.
Does anyone know why this is? Thanks.
Don't go to projects release folder, go to Setup project release/debug folder and search for .exe or .msi file.
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So currently I have a project in Visual Studio that runs perfectly. When I build the project and create the .exe build in my Debug folder I can run it without any problems. However, when I try to share my .exe build with other co-workers the project doesn't run and crashes. At first the project described that the dependencies weren't able to be located. I then added the dependencies to the folder where the .exe program was located and it still doesn't work.
So what is the best way to create a .exe program that I can hand out to people? And is there a way to test the program in an "outside" environment on my computer? Is there a way to create a .exe program that's not located in my debug folder?
Give them the whole debug folder with the exe. It should work. To have less files and optimization from the compiler use release instead of debug mode. Give them the release folder in this case.
If you want even less files install the nuget package fody costura which will pack all .dll into the exe
If you want to create an installer, check out click once deployment.
I have an App.config XML file in my application project that I use to provide customizable options to the user.
I have an install project that installs the application project output and the configuration file to the program files folder.
If I launch the application from within Visual Studio, the configuration is loaded from file correctly.
The config settings don't get loaded when I launch the installed executable, but if I copy the executable from the application project binary output directory over the installed executable, it works.
What am I missing?
I was building a DEBUG target and installer, whereas when I changed it to RELEASE, the installed application loaded the configuration correctly. Apparently it is an issue with installing a debug version of an executable. I have a fix/workaround (do not install a debug version of my application), but it would be interesting to know why it didn't work.
I have completed my program and would like to send that program in its compiled state to other pc's.
I understand that in the Debug folder there is the programName.exe file, which when I open it on the PC I created it with - it opens.
But if I send that .exe file to other pc's, it crashes or simply doesnt run!
Is there a way for others to see and use my program without installing visual studio?
I have asked this question before on another programming website with not much help, this is the link that they showed me, which i then followed:
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/58021-deploying-a-c%23-application-visual-studio-setup-project/#-application-visual-studio-setup-project/
The installer installs the program, but there is no files with it to open!
Other machines won't need to have Visual Studio installed - but they will need the appropriate version of .NET, depending on what you built against. If you target the "client" profile, the .NET distribution is fairly small.
You could build a setup project which kicks off the .NET framework installation if necessary, but it's likely to be quite a lot of work - in many cases it's probably simpler just to tell people what they need to install first, particularly if this is for personal use or friends/family.
There are most likely other DLLs that your project is dependent on that do not get copied over when only transporting that .exe file. You COULD just copy those over as well.
However, the best practice is to add a new Project under Setup for a Installer. It should detect those dependencies. Then the other users will just have to run the setup.exe that gets created (but you have to include the other folders and files that get generated). Open up the File System Editor tab of the Installer project. Then inside the Application Folder, I right click on "Primary output from [Main Project] (Active)", then select "Create Shortcut to ..." and drop the Shortcut into the Program Files and User Desktop folders on the left.
For something simple, the other DLLs should be fine.
Create the MSI Installer project for your application.
Copy your project output as input of MSI Installer.
.Exe is depends on .msi file, so when you click the .exe must verify the msi file existed in same directory.
Verify the .Net framework and Installation 3.0 before run the .exe or .Msi file.
The easiest approach would be:
1: Right click on your Solution Explorer and add a new project. The new project would be a Setup project, which would be under Other Projects -> Setup and Deployment -> Visual Studio installer and then choose Setup Project from the right side.
2: Add all your bin folder files to Application folder and then build your solution.
3: It will create a file with .msi extension. You can distribute that to anyone you want and they wouldn't need any VS.
I have a Visual Studio 2010 project that references a dll from another project.
I've also successfully created a service to start this app.
To create the service I simply ran a batch file that called the installutil.exe from the .net4 area and pointed it at the .exe in the Release folder of my VS project. The Release folder also contains a copy of the referenced dll.
With this arrangement everything works fine - I can access the dll through the service.
However, if I try to create the service from anywhere other than the Release folder it doesn't work.
To explain:
I copied all the files from the VS Release folder into another unrelated folder and modified the paths in my install script. The service was created successfully and does start up. Unfortunately I cannot access the dll through the service when the service is created in this way. Why?
I'm curious if the current working directory was the Release folder when it worked. Perhaps it's because the working directory is not where the .dll file is in your broken scenario. Have you tried changing directories first, before calling the .exe?
I have made msi file of my project using setup and deployment option from visual studio.I want to add one exe file of mobile software in my setup folder and i want ,that mobile software exe should be run before my msi file from my setup folder.I don't know that how i give the path of that software exe and run from my setup folder.
I have used prerequisites option and also add file in my application folder while making setup,but i don't get any solution of my problem.
Please help me.
A prerequisite is the correct solution. Visual Studio setup projects do not support custom prerequisite creation. However, it can be done by manually generating the required manifests.
You can find the manifests structure here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229223(VS.80).aspx
These manifests can be generated automatically with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator tool.
After generating the package manifests, you can add all these files (including the package) in a separate folder in the Visual Studio prerequisites folder, for example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages
You can then select the prerequisite in your setup project property pages.