There was already a bunch of questions like that but how do I make a stand alone .exe file in Visual Studio C# Express? There is no setup and deployment tab/bar in here.
I've pressed that "Publish projectName" but not sure if that is right. There is a bunch of other .exe files in bin\Debug and bin\Release. Which one do I need and is this actually correct? My project is WinForms C# app, nothing too fancy. Need to make sure it works on other computers.
Thanks in advance.
Take that with the same name as your project. So if your project is names MyWinFormApp, you need MyWinFormApp.exe.
If there is nothing like MyWinFormApp.exe in bin/Release than you probably did not built your application in the release mode. However, if you succeeded to build your application in a debug mode, there should be a MyWinFormApp.exe file in bin/Debug folder.
You can find MyWinFormApp.vshost.exe there as well, but that is not what you want. It is just some helper executable for a compiler.
Also, make sure that if your application uses any other libraries which are not part of the .NET framework you have to ship them along with the exe file as well in order to make it working on another computers.
Related
when building my project (WPF), VisualStudio outputs the exe along with all dlls for the project.
Which, in itself, is a good thing. I on the other hand have just a really small application written and I'd like to just give this exe to my friends so they double click it and voilá.
Is there any way to force VS to "package" all that output into one single executable? Like, when you download an exe, open it and there's your program?
Cheers
When I go into my bin debug folder and move the exe out of it, which depends on a library I have installed in Visual Studio, it will crash because it can no longer find the library it needs.
I was wondering how you can build a library into the app so it will be able to run anywhere instead of just in the bin/debug folder.
Thanks!
Basically you ask for static linking of dll files, which is not the intended approach; the question can be seen as a duplicate of this question.
you have 3 options.
1) create an installer. this is a decent way: http://wixtoolset.org/
(we use http://www.advancedinstaller.com/) it works well but expensive.
2)bad idea embedd the dlls inside the exe
3) bad idea just copy all the referenced files
I made a little app with c# which I wanted to send to a friend to get an opinion. Problem is when I selected release configuration and click rebuild I get 7 additional files(3 dll's, 1 exes,...) along with the exe I want. Am I doing something wrong? I used to get single .exe files back when I used c++ with VS 2005.
You are not doing anything wrong. Its just that at release additional files are generated like AppConfig.xml for instange that holds your application settings, or a ClickOnce deployment package so that your friend can install the app. To get more used to c# you can start by googling articles about the differences between debug and release
Have you considered using the Click Once facility built into Visual Studio 2012?
Click Once Deployment - MSDN
Click Once will generate an installer that will that your friend can execute. It will automatcially download and install any dependencies (such as a specific .NET Runtime) if necessary.
To distribute referenced DLLs look at the following URL as it suggests the correct configuration settings:
How to: Specify Which Files Are Published by ClickOnce
It's been an horrible hour. Couldn't get Clickonce working for such a simple app. Moving just the 3 referenced dlls and the exe to another folder worked. Wix on the other hand...is difficult to say the least.
However, this allowed me to create a single setup file if not an exe in 10 mins. I sent a shortcut to the desktop which is more or less what I want.
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 programmed an hour-sheet application and now I would like to publish it so people can install and run it.
I've tried the publish function of visual studio 2008 but this gives me a clickOnce application/installer that's really confusing, but it works when I run it, but when I export the installer to another pc it installs it crashes at the end of the install.
so I tried just coping the installed files but then the program crashes at startup.
Is there a simple way to compile the application to a simple standalone executable or maybe containing a separate folder containing the resources (images/classes)?
You can copy the executable from bin\Release and it should work.
If it uses any DLLs that are not part of the .Net framework itself, you'll also need to copy those. (Set Copy Local to true in the properties for each reference)
If it uses any other files, you'll need to copy them to the right place or embed them in the EXE or a DLL.
I would add Setup Project to your solution which will create a setup.exe.
Here's some of the links:
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=58021
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235317.aspx
This will make sure that the dlls and assemblies are deployed to appropriate place when you install your software. It will also make sure that it gets rids of files when you uninstall it.
you can find your .exe here Projectpath\bin\Debug you have to give .config file too