Windows application self contains .Net framework?

Question

Hi All,

I have a windows application which contain a deployer

1. Does the Deployer self contains a copy of the .Net framework ? or do we have to explicitily install it ? when i check in the solution explorer it shows under the deployer project under detected dependencies the .net framework ??
2. My windows application connects to the internet to validate for a registred user do i need to configure some port or something like that while i am installing it .Also how do i check which port does my application use to connect to the interet ?

Thanks Francis P.

Answer 1

Hi,

1: depend of your deploy project (VS, installshield ?). But commonly, you need to force .net installation (pre requisite option). By default, .net is not contained in the deployment projects.

2: Here, depend of the way you want to connect the internet. Could you tell us more about that ?

Answer 2

1. .NET runs in a VM so you would need to require the framework be installed in order to actually run it. Much like you need to have flash or java for those respective mediums. Microsoft has redistributable packages for the .NET framework. So you could probably incorporate them into your installer. If your targeting 1.1 or 2.0 most people probably wont need it.

2. So long as you are not trying to get IN to the client machine then you shouldn't need anything special like UPnP to [attempt to] open a port if they are behind a NAT.

Answer 3

Regarding #1, just as Xstahef said, you need to prerequisite the .NET framework.

You could put the .NET redistributable in your installer, and if you detect that the .NET runtime is not installed then prompt the user to run and install the .NET distributable contained in your installer (that's what we did some time ago, InstallShield provided this functionality for us). But this may not be recommendable: the .NET runtime has grown a lot in size (depending of the version you need to have in your client's machine), and many customers (at least the educated customers) won't trust installing the runtime from your installer. Besides, you may need to check with the legal department in your company before including a third-party component in your installation.

Answer 4

Xenocode does allow to run such an application on an absolutely clean PC.