I usually use ClickOnce as my publication method, but I hate sending a bunch of files to people and having to say "Please unzip and run setup". All I need to do is this simple thing. A program that puts all files together in a single file, then unzip them to a temp folder and runs Setup. I haven't check very deep in Visual Studio features (I'm using 2010 Professional version) but so far I haven't found any way to achieve this.
A:
What exactly is the problem? You can build standalone applications that don't need setup at all with VS2010, C/C++. Simply deploy required dll's in the same folder and that's it.
Can you tell what do you want to achieve? Is it .NET project you want to deploy, new project you want to create? There are setup projects that create an MSI that can be deployed as a single file. But that's for windows.
Madman
2010-10-07 19:40:46
I'm making .NET apps. Sometimes I need to have files other than the main .exe (not just dll's). The ClickOne tool is almost perfect. It add's all necessary files and check the target computer for requirements and downloads them if necessary. Super handy. But the only problem is that I end up with more than one file (I use the "Install from CD/DVD" option, since there is not a "Install from standalone file" one).
jsoldi
2010-10-07 19:46:20
Check if you have a Setup project type under the Professional edition. You can set it to pack necessary files under project properties. The configuration is messy at some places (like setting the required .NET version and framework), but if you have this project type, it should suffice. EDIT: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/19x10e5c.aspx
Madman
2010-10-07 19:50:53
I do have it, but it's very messy. I already had problems with that. I'd rather use ClickOnce and zip the files.
jsoldi
2010-10-07 20:37:45
It's not that bad once you try. I got the first project going in like half an hour.
Madman
2010-10-07 22:06:35
I have to include SqlCeServer, I still havn't figured out how to include the necessary dll's. ClickOnce download the whole think if the user doesn't have it installed. Also, I added a .sdf (sql ce) data file that was not being written with full permissions so I got errors when trying to connect to it, and couldn't find a way to tell the installer to copy it with full permissions for everyone. Stuff like that.
jsoldi
2010-10-08 04:27:00
Actually I think I can make the installer myself since as far as I understand you can embed any kind of file in a Visual Studio project and do whatever you want with them.
jsoldi
2010-10-08 04:27:55
A:
Check out a install package builder like Advanced Installer. It will package it as a exe or msi install for you. You can even have it build the solution each time for you! The freeware version should work fine for simple installs.
Edit
I'm sorry I thought the freeware version was unlimited :( Apologies.
msarchet
2010-10-07 19:43:44