Deploy .NET (C#) exe application on desktops

Question

I develop application in C# with MSVC 2010 Express, with Forms/WPF/etc.

Application consist of some private assemblies (maybe DLLs) and .exe file. It uses .NET 4 fea

Answer 1

Use xenocode here

http://spoon.net/Studio/

No need to install anything. It converts your exe to Native code indirectly and you can run anywhere on windows system. It also has some option of adding framework inside and the total exe size will be somewhere arround 10MB + Your application exe size..

Thanks

Answer 2

You should create a installer package. If you are using the express versions of visual studio, you can use some free tools for this like WiX or Inno Setup. WiX is perhaps a difficult option to start with, but has a lot of flexibility. There are tutorials and example projects to modify to adapt them to your needs. http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/

This tools create installers that can check if a certain version of the .NET framework is installed on the user computer, among other conditions. You can also include the .NET redistributable in your package, or point the user to download and install it.

Answer 3

You didn't say what type of clients they are (are you making a small app for your friends to use or are they paying customers), but whatever the case may be, I'm always completely against sending a zip file with an instruction document describing what to do with it and what folder to extract it to. As Remy said, ClickOnce is not a bad idea, but I've found it to be a bit of a pain to set up (once you get it set up, though, it works just fine). On the other hand, a Deployment project is simpler and if I were you, that would be the first thing I'd explore.

Answer 4

yes! you have to give some general instruction about prerequisites to run your software and in that you can mention the Framework version 3.5 or 4.0 and other utilities you require.

please refer this document for Choosing a Deployment Strategy in Visual studio 2010 may this can help you http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e2444w33.aspx