CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studio-2010visual-studio-2012
msindle
msindle

Reputation: 239

Compile a Visual Studio program to run without installation

I'm writing a C# program in VS 2012 and am trying to figure out how to get it to run with having the user install it. What I'm looking to do is toss this small program out on the network and just have the users run it or put it on a USB drive and give it to them that way. How can I go about doing this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 350

Answers (1)

John Koerner
John Koerner

Reputation: 38087

Ask yourself this, why do installers exist? They exist to ensure that the client machine has all of the pre-requisites installed prior to running the application. Copying the bin directory will work, provided the machine has all of those pre-requisites, and if you can guarantee that (like in some corporate environments), then you are good to go.

If you are developing in VS 2012, then you may be targeting .net 4.5, which many people may not have installed on their machines. If you use any third party COM components then you will require steps to register those before you start your application.

If your application requires admin rights and the user doesn't run it as admin, it could fail unexpectedly, if you don't have an installer set it up properly.

There are a lot of scenarios that are helped by installers. If you have a very simple application, then all should be OK by copying the bin folder, but make sure you understand the scenarios where it will not work, so you know how to support it.

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions