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Creating Exe/MSI for C# Windows Forms using Visual Studio 2017 Setup Project

I'm trying to create exe/msi for my solution
it contains the following Projects
ActiveDirectoryEngine: library used to implement AD operations
ADService: windows service - performs the work in the background
CryptographyEngine: library used to encrypt/decrypt data
TerranovaActiveDirectoryHost: Dashboars/win form to manage/check the service's status
SyncToolSetup: the setup project "it only targets TerranovaActiveDirectoryHost"
Here is the contents of the Setup project:
I tried the same steps for different Solution, with ONLY one windows forms application, and it worked fine, but it looks that it doesn't work when I have more than one referenced projects.
The install and Uninstall options are not enabled
Update:
all the previous projects are referenced in the Win forms project, so am I targeting the right one when creating the exe/msi?

The only project with the Install option is the setup project. Other projects in the solution do not have install option just because there is a setup project as part of the solution.
References in a non-setup project (such as a C# build) are not automatically included in a setup project. References used to build code are not necessarily things that need installing on the target system. The setup will try to help with dependencies, but it's unreliable, and only a guide. For example, your Application Folder view contains some files that are part of the .NET Framework, and you definitely don't install them because they are installed as part of the standard .NET framework install.
The setup project must be told what needs to be installed on the target system. There are generally two ways of doing this:
Selecting project output as input to the setup project. This can be rather indeterminate because it's not always obvious what files are included, or what to do if the files need installing to different locations.
Add the files that you know you need one at a time by adding them in the File System view of the directory they need installing into. Typically, executables go into the Application Folder (defaults to Program Files..), data files to User's Application Data, shared files to Common Files folder, some assemblies to the GAC and so on.

C# - Using wuapi.dll without embedding it into project

I am trying to create a program, allowing silent installation of important updates for Windows. I want it to be a single .exe file, without any additional files, libraries, icons etc. I am using .Net 3.5. I included wuapi.dll to the References folder of my project. After compilation wuapi.dll is copied to the same folder, where goes .exe file (Debug or Release).
I've read different articles about usage of ILMerge for embedding .dll files directly into .exe file. And here is my question - all the Windows computers have wuapi.dll in system32 or SysWow64 folders, so why should I embed it into my project? Is there a way to make a reference to these libraries or use their functions without adding them to project at all?

On the References, select the wuapi and set the property CopyLocal to false. Also, make sure that the SpecificVersion is set to false, otherways it may not work with whatever version is installed on the user machine.
I would assume that wuapi can be found in any Windows version since XP.
This only works on .Net 4.0 on by setting "Embed Interop Types" to true. On .Net 3.5 you don't need to deploy the wuapi.dll itself but you need to deploy the generated Interop file.
For more info check: http://blogs.clariusconsulting.net/kzu/check-your-embed-interop-types-flag-when-doing-visual-studio-extensibility-work/

system.dllnotfoundexception without VS 2008

My C# code loads a C++ DLL. It works fine on my PC, where Visual Studio 2008 is installed. But on other machines the program stop with an exception
Unhandeled exception: system.dllnotfoundexception unable to load dll ...
this application has failed becasue the application configuration is incorrect....
How can I make this code run on a machine that doesn't have VS 2008 installed?

You must distribute your DLL along with your project if it is a custom DLL of yours. If not, you must install the required DLL either with a custom installer or if it is from a different provider, a installer of them.
This post might be a bit older, but
DLL Files And .NET ClickOnce Deployment
I want to deploy one of my .NET apps as a ClickOnce application. The issue is that I am connecting to Oracle (see previous posts here and here). Connecting to Oracle requires at least, 4 DLL files that generally have to be in the same directory as the EXE file. The issue is that when the program is published, the DLLs are not referenced in any way, so the program won’t work.
Then I read about adding the files to the project, so that ClickOnce and the Publish processor will figure out that the DLLs are required and add them to the manifest.
Here is the process in Visual Studio 2005:
1. Put the 4 DLL files in their own directory in your solution directory (for ease of use mostly).
2. Add all four files to your project by going to “Project->Add Existing Item…”
3. Click on each DLL file in the solution explorer and then change their property: “Copy To Output Directory” to “Copy Always”.
That’s it! Now when I publish or even run the application I don’t have to worry about if the DLL files are where they should be.

in vs 2008 on project:
Properties>c/c++ >Runtime Library > choose: Multi-threaded Debug (/MTd)

deploy program including external libraries

I have this application that uses external libraries (downloaded them from the Internet and are just situated locally on my machine). But I need to deploy the program and give it to customer whereas these external libraries should also be included in the deployed application, otherwise it won't work...
Should I just copy the library files in the project directory and then publish the project or something else?
p.s. the application is written in C# with .NET 4 on VS2010, and the external libraries are open source, so no worries on the license.

I'll assume you are using some flavour of visual studio.
If so, you need to set library "copy local" property to true.
See this Microsoft article for more information
This way, when you build the project, it will make a copy of all of the required libraries in the bin folder of the project.

.net c# Winforms .exe wont start on any other machine

Ive developed a winforms application on my local machine using .net 4.0 and it runs fine. I have all dotnet versions installed.
When I copied the .exe and all of its references (the complete bin\debug and bin\release) to another machine it simply does not run. On one of my VMS it fires up visual studio express and asks if I want to connect a debgger. On other machines it just doesnt do anything.
But I can work out what on earth is going on.
I have referenced soem xceed dlls that are installed in GAC but not on the target machines GAC could this be the problem?
How do I tell what the hell is going on?
Pete

Yes, the xceed dlls (and every other referenced dlls) must exist on the target machine -- either included in the application directory or the GAC.
You may try specifying "Copy Local = true" to the suspect references, and rebuilding your project, so that these dlls are specifically included with the compiled assemblies.

if you deploy the pdb-files to the one VM with VS Express installed you should be able to connect the debugger and see the exception details. And yes, a missing assembly can (or better: will) cause that kind of behavior if the assembly is not only referenced but actually used in your application. I would generally recommend to implement some kind of error logging (either to the event logs or to a text file).

Have you checked that the other machine has a version of the .Net Framework installed? Failing that try to publish the application using the ClickOnce tool.
ClickOnce will download and instal any missing dependencies for the .Net Framework if necessary.