Someone asked me this today after a failed file move, and I was not sure what to tell them.
When you build a .NET deployment package you get the setup.exe and the .msi files. I know that the .msi file is needed... but for the setup.exe, is that unique? Meaning, can we just move the .msi file and be fine, or do we need to keep the two together?
The Setup.exe contains the .NET bootstrapper that will check for the presence of the .NET framework on your target machine. It also is used by Windows Vista/7 to enforce admin right during the install. If you are in an environment that you'll know already have the .NET framework in place, or you don't need the automatic UAC leveraging, you could probably skip the .exe.