I have a Windows Forms app that is deployed using ClickOnce deployment. I'm using another Winforms project to customize the installation steps. So I would have to distribute the executable (of the installer project). Is there anyway to bundle the .NET framework 4.0 with the executable (either standalone or web installer) or should it be downloaded and installed separately?
Thanks.
dotNetInstaller is a "bootstrap" that can install dependencies, including the .NET framework, before launching the target application/installer.
dotNetInstaller enables the developer to define the application prerequisites and install the correct version(s) of these components in a predictable order based on the processor architecture, user operating system type and language, allow the user to download these components from the web, install these components directly from a single packaged setup, local media or both ..
A boostrapper doesn't replace tools like InstallShield, Wise, Visual Studio Setup and Deployment Project or Wix. The goal is to create an application to help users with installing the correct prerequisites ..
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I've developed an application in .NET 5.0, also, I've a Setup Project to install this application in my clients.
My steps are:
1.- Publish the .NET 5.0 Application.
2.- Compile the Setup project.
3.- Install the setup.exe generated in "2" in the client.
But when I try to install the program in my client, windows says "This installation requires the 5.0.0(x64) version of .NET Desktop Runtime... So I've to download and install the SDK in every client.
My question is: There is some way to avoid this SDK installation? Can I embeed the .NET Desktop Runtime in the .NET 5.0 App or in the Setup Project?
Thanks in advance.
See .NET application publishing overview, specifically publishing a self-contained application. That way all necessary framework files will be included in your application, and you will not the framework to be installed. This will increase the disk requirement a bit if .Net 5 is already installed, since some files will be duplicated.
The alternative is to bundle the the .Net framework installer in your installation script. This will cause the setup-file to be quite a bit larger, unless the script downloads the framework on demand. But it may save some disk space in case there are multiple applications that use .Net 5.
Go on projet Menu/ projetct properties / publish / require components / uncheck you frameWork .
I have created Sales Management System using C# and MS SQL Server 2012. This is working fine. All I want to know in how can I create an exe so that this can be installed in another machine without any .NET Framework.
e.g. it should say like SalesManagementSystem.exe, and I should be able to install it in any machine.
Just download the Setup project templates and create an installer:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.MicrosoftVisualStudio2015InstallerProjects
See my extensive guide here on how to make an Installer (one that upgrades itself as well):
Install to same path when upgrading application
A .Net application will never run without the corresponding framework installed. But depending on the target OS the framework is already installed. Please check the release history at wikipeda. There you can see which .Net version is already installed in which windows version.
If you want to deploy a single executable you have to embed all your depending assemblies into your executable as a resource (plenty of questions and answers are already at SO) and load them by overwriting the AssemblyResolve event.
If you want to create a windows installer take a look at WiX.
You cannot just skip the .NET Framework on the target machine - it is needed to run your program. The exe file, produced by the C# compiler contains MSIL, which is understood by .NET Framework, as opposed by the destination OS - be it Windows or any other.
Having that said, your best bet is to write an installer for your app and
distribute the .NET Framework distribute the .NET Framework along with it. When launched, the installer might check what is the installed version of the .NET framework on the target machine (if any) and respond appropriately by installing whatever it is needed for your application.
You can use WiX to author an installers.
I'd like to know which kind of files are stored in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework.NETFramework\v4.0\
Are those files meant for WPF/Silverlight?
And which installer install the files in that folder?
I'd like to know this because we have developed a winforms application with custom WPF controls. When we deploy the application on a bare system, the application crashes when these controls are used...
WPF is part of the .NET Framework since version 3.0
Silverlight is different from WPF and has a separate SDK download
Files located under Reference Assemblies folder, are usually installed by Visual studio when installing SDK and (in your case), are part of the Windows 7 and .NET 4 Framework SDK.
Winforms and WPF are quite different technologies. In short, Winforms are wrappers above Windows C++ MFC library and WPF are wrappers above DirectX library.
You should check the difference between Client profile and Full Framework because most of the time, your application should target the Client profile and in only few scenario, it should target the Full Framework. By the way, if you're using the .NET Framework 4.5 or above, Client profile has been discontinued. It simplifies the deployment process.
Check in the references properties in your C# project that the Copy Local is set to True. It will copy the referenced library in the output directory of the project.
Is there any way to make a WPF Browser Application prompt to install .NET Framework with ClickOnce like a regular installable WPF Application?.
Those publishing options are locked when the HostInBrowser property in the project file is set to True, which is necessary for the application i'm developing, however i need to make the installation of dependencies user friendly, and possibly from the .net framework installer already hosted in my server, as it would cut down greatly the use of bandwidth.
The program is intended to be used in intranet, as a "web page", by placing shortcuts on the desktop of each computer (which is done at the first run of the app), but most of the users don't have .NET Framework 4 installed.
is there any way to accomplish this without converting it to an installable wpf application?
Thanks in advance, Jesús.
No ClickOnce requires the .Net framework, because it's a component of it.
All ClickOnce applications require that the correct version of the .NET
Framework is installed on a computer before they can be run
You can however set a prerequisite which is a higher version of the framework, provided they have at least version 2.0 to begin with.
Commonly a bootstrapper written in managed code is used to overcome this limitation. You could use MSBuild for this, dotNetInstaller, or other third party tools. I've used dotNetInstaller a few times a recommend it, it's very flexible.
I have a C# program which I want to make available to my users, but the problem is that it requires .NET framework version 4.0. This is a problem because it was released pretty recently (April 2010) and a lot of people probably don't have it. To make matters worse it takes a while to download and install the framework (~10 minutes).
Is there any way I can install just a part of the framework I need? If that isn't possible can I compile my code down to a native binary for specific systems
eg. x86 32-bit, x86 64-bit, etc.
I've looked at a company called 'spoon' http://spoon.net/ but that looks like it just emulates apps on a server (sort of like citrix). What can I do to resolve this dilemma?
Anyone who wants to run your program needs the appropriate version of the .NET Framework installed. There's no way to work around this. It honestly amazes me how often this question gets asked. You can't compile .NET code down to any kind of a "native binary", and you can't distribute only the portions of the framework that you need. If all of this was important to you, you should have chosen a different development platform in the beginning.
Your only option is to bundle the .NET Framework along with your application's installer. The way to make this easiest on your customers is to use Visual Studio to create a setup project that will automatically install the .NET FW if they don't have it already, and then install your application, all in a single step process.
Visual Studio has built-in support for creating such a setup project, and most of the dirty work is handled for you. File -> New Project -> Other Project Types -> Setup & Deployment -> Visual Studio Installer. Then, pick either the "Setup Project" or "Setup Wizard" option, and follow the instructions.
The only thing to keep in mind since you've developed for .NET 4.0 is that there are two versions of this framework: the full version and the "Client Profile". The Client Profile is an attempt to do exactly as you mention and install only the portions of the framework that are used by the typical application. You have to first figure out of this is a deployment option for you. If your program uses classes that are not available in the Client Profile, you need to install the full version. Otherwise, you can consider installing the Client Profile, which is the default for all new projects targeting .NET 4.0 in VS 2010. Check the "Target Framework" settings for your application, under the project Properties. If it's not set to Client Profile already, try changing it and see if it will compile. That's the quickest way to tell if this deployment option is available to you. But there's only about a 15% difference in size between the two frameworks, so it isn't really that big of a deal if you must deploy the full version.
Either way, the setup project will automatically determine and bundle the correct version for your app. Definitely don't make the user download and run the .NET installer separately. Use the setup project and do this for them automatically. If you don't have VS or don't want to use the one it provides, investigate alternatives, like Inno Setup, which also support deploying and installing the .NET runtime with an app.
In many cases you do not need the entire .NET Framework 4.0 and can use the much smaller .NET Framework Client Profile. You can then use an installer to bundle the client profile installer with your app into a single deployment.
You cannot run a .NET app without the framework. If this is a deployment issue for your customers, you should consider either a Click-Once installer (web-based automated installation and updating) or porting the app to Silverlight.
For the sake of completeness, there is also the possibility for .NET Core release deploy Self-Contained Deployments (SCD) nowadays. When you create a self-contained deployment, .NET Core tools automatically include the latest serviced runtime of the .NET Core version that your application targets.
Deploying a Self-contained deployment has two major advantages:
You have sole control of the version of .NET Core that is deployed with your app. .NET Core can be serviced only by you.
You can be assured that the target system can run your .NET Core app, since you're providing the version of .NET Core that it will run on.
Here is a small guide from Scott Hanselman.