wpf app on dvd how to?

Question

Just wondering if it is possible to play a wpf app on dvd. We have an app which acts as a Knowledgebase for a few applications. Our client would like the users to take home the dvd and play it to get familiar with various aspects of apps using the dvd. You can kind of think of the KB application as a collection of articles built using wpf which looks like a browser with back, forward & favorites options in the menu. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks N

Answer 1

You can publish the application via ClickOnce, which can build an offline installer that can be burned to DVD. That would be the easiest way to publish, includes a bootstrapper that installs all required prerequisites for you without all the complexity of a fully pledged MSI installer.

In case you would require a more advanced setup, use Wix, Visual Studio integrated installer generator or any other MSI generator of choice - this will give you all the customization imaginable.

Answer 2

You can just burn the exe, dlls and required data files to a dvd and run it from there.

BUT

1. You must have the appropriate version of the .net framework already installed on teh computer.
2. .net applications running from cd/dvd run in partial trust, in this mode you don't haver permissions to do some things.

This MSDN page explain what WPF features are supported in partial trust: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970910.aspx

Depending on your application you may find out that installing the program on the local computer (maybe keeping the data on the dvd if you want) is easier than getting it to run in partial trust, in that case take a look at (ordered from simplest to most powerful) ClickOnce, VS setup projects and WIX.