Deployment checklist

I am starting to deploy my desktop application. It is a syntax highlighting notepad. I am considering deploying it on the w开发者_如何学Pythoneb. What is like a list of things that I should do before I deploy my application?

Before you deploy an application. On the top of my head (some of what we do before each release)

1. Test it :-)
2. Test it on a clean PC. What happens it it does not have .NET installed?
3. Test it as a standard user (not everyone is an administrator)
4. "Polish". Use a consistent version on all files (important for later upgrades)
5. Make sure that licenses, copyright messages are correct. That the year is correct etc.

I am no expert in deploy issues, but perhaps you could deploy to a private server, and see if you can actually do the entire process.

And just as a suggestion, —I know its not directly related to the deployment per se— is it a Web 2.0 style (free/user oriented) app? Perhaps a beta version where people expected to not be perfect would help, although that's more after deployment

As this is a desktop application you could use ClickOnce deployment. This bundles your application and all its dependencies into an installer which you upload to the web. Your customers then either download the installer or run it from the web.

ClickOnce also enables automatic updates. You set the update check frequency on deployment, then just upload the new version to the web. The next time the user runs your application and it's time to check, the new version will get downloaded and installed.