Turning .NET executable into native executable

Question

Is there any approach to convert an application developed in .NET into a native executable (sources are included)?

Installing the whole framework (up to .NET Framew

Answer 1

NGen compiles the exes to native exes, so they do not need to be JIT compiled as they are run. They are still dependant on the framework though.

There are a few commercial companies that do provide products for compiling .net assemblies into standalone exes. Xenocode and vmware's Thinapp. Neither are cheap though.

Answer 2

The only product we founded to solve the problem in 2007 was Xenocode Postbuild. From that time we use this product successfully, we use also its pretty good virtualization features.

The only problem is that the version we purchased don't support the Windows 7 (where you don't need to install .net framework to run your program compiled with version < 4.0). So I wrote to Xenocode. They answered

In order to get support for Win 7 you should upgrade to the newest version of Postbuild (now called .NET Obfuscator). Win 7 is not a supported platform for Postbuild 2007.

Answer 3

There is a commercial product that claims to do that here:

http://www.xenocode.com/Obfuscator/

"Deploy .NET applications securely, with no .NET Framework install"

No idea what the drawbacks to this would be though

Answer 4

Why not Ngen.exe? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6t9t5wcf(v=vs.80).aspx

It converts .Net Programs into Native Programs also and you already have it if you have the .Net Framework

Answer 5

You can use NGen to make your application a native executable, but it will still be dependent upon the .Net framework.