How do I make a project built into a downloadable Cd?

Question

Hi all

I just got finished making my first project in visual studio 2008. What I want to do is put it on a CD and let another person run it. I went to the clean and build and publish and all went well. When I took it to my friend's house to put it on her computer I never got a "download" and "install" screen.

We were able to see it and use it on her computer (which is good because she doesn't have Visual Studio on her machine) but I wanted her to be able to use it without keeping the CD in the drive.

Is there some setup or something I have to do to make my program download and install? The whole shebang was all done with starting a new windows application and then just adding windows forms to the original.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Your best bet would be to use the ClickOnce system built into Visual Studio.

This will automatically install/download any files needed such as necessary .Net files and it will then install the application onto the computer. In previous versions (2005) the publication method specifically asks you what files you want to include with the program that will need to be installed : See Here

The following link will help you : ClickOnce Summary

Also: How to publish a ClickOnce application

This method will allow the application to be listed under the Start > All Programs menu as well as in the Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs.

Answer 2

An alternative solution would be to create a setup project.

You can use either the built-in setup & deployment or the WiX deployment toolset.