VB.net app without installation

Is it possible to create a VB.Net application which users can just run without installing it first.

If not, 开发者_StackOverflowis it possible in another .Net language.

If not, how IS it possible :)

PS: The application only has to run under Windows (>= XP).

If they have the .NET Framework installed (the version of it that you developed it), they only need the .exe. You can find the .exe file in the bin directory of your projects folder in your Visual Studio workspace.

If they do not have the framework installed, you'll need to produce an installation for them. It's extremely easy with Visual Studio by just creating a setup project in the same solution as your code.

As long as the user has the .net runtime installed, and your exe has any needed resources in the same folder (dll's, images, ect) theres no problem with that.

If you mean without installing the .net framework though, that won't be possible.

just build the program, and go into the (assuming the project name is app1) app1/app1/bin/debug/ dir. there should be a file there called app1.exe. this file is the compiled .exe from you project. any other computer will be able to run this without doing any installation (provided they have the .NET framework installed (it comes standard on any computer with an os > WinXP))

EDIT: If you were building with debug configuration, it would be app1/app1/bin/debug/, but if you were building with release configuration (which would probably be a better idea if you are distributing) the path would be app1/app1/bin/release/

If you mean running it without the .NET Framework, it used to be possible, but apparently the company's website is no longer in English so I have no idea what's happened to it.

EDIT: If you were building with debug configuration, it would be app1/app1/bin/debug/, but if you were building with release configuration (which would probably be a better idea if you are distributing) the path would be app1/app1/bin/release/

I am developer and have no administration rights to live(production) network.

I had to find away to deploy an app without installation... and my app is self updating this cause other problems too....

The production network Computer check/monitors the file versions etc, so updating in the program files can not be done, where a MSI has been used for deployment.

Using this above I am able to copy and Run the App from the User Profile (where the user has full rights).

lets understand how program runs- an .exe needs some function which are not inside the .exe, such as , for example substring() function. these predefined function resides in some .dll libraries. when .exe is executed by user, .exe first finds the .dll and then the function inside that particular .dll.

.exe first looks within the current folder for that .dll if not found then it searches that in PATHs. (PATH is Environment variable which value is a list of folders such as System32 etc.)

an .exe usually needs only 3 things - .exe itself, .dll which predefined function it is using, and some ActiveX controls(.ocx). apart from these 3, .exe only uses resources (such as icons etc).

lets focus on these 3(.exe, .dll, .ocx)

first you need to check what .dlls your .exe is using. you can easiely do this by using a dependency walker.

then make sure all these .dlls (that dependency walker is showing,or in other words- all these dlls whose functions your .exe needs) are either in current folder(in which your .exe resides) or in the PATHs.

if this step is done then your .exe has high chances to run whithout "installing".

the only problem is that some .dll and all of .ocx, needs to be registered first(means they have to have some kind of registry entry). they are not ready to use just by copying and pasting in current folder or PATHs. but you can register these .dlls and .ocx's by using regsvr32 (with command line). after that your .exe should not face any problem to run successfully.

hope you got the main concept.