Application installers/publish

[Johnson]

Hello.

I am nearing the end of my journey with the application i have spent the last few months working on. Now my question is this...

How do you go about making an installer? Obviously i am sure you have worked out now i mean the exe you click and choose instalation folder/desktop short cut or not/add to start menu. accept the agreement etc

Now i know vb.net has a publisher that i have looked at but is that the same?

can any one point me to a tutorial i can learn how to make my application have an installer.

thanks
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[Untamed]

Advanced installer 5.2.2 by Microsoft
Installshield

Two programs that should do the job.

 

[Johnson]

Is that just an option between the two or do i need them both?

 

[Untamed]

They are two options, you need to use only one.
You can also google for installer if you'd like to see more options.
VB.Net doesn't have it's own built-in installer.
You should probably use something like one of the ones I listed in my first post, or, if you really want to, you can try and make your own installer. I could, right now, probably think of how to do most of the stuff that a normal installer does... just not sure how I'd compress the files into the installer if it was custom made in VB.Net.

 

[Johnson]

They are two options, you need to use only one.
You can also google for installer if you'd like to see more options.
VB.Net doesn't have it's own built-in installer.
You should probably use something like one of the ones I listed in my first post, or, if you really want to, you can try and make your own installer. I could, right now, probably think of how to do most of the stuff that a normal installer does... just not sure how I'd compress the files into the installer if it was custom made in VB.Net.

Really appreciated. il take your top coice

thanks

 

[JohnH]

If you don't have very advanced deployment requirements you should use the the built in ClickOnce publish functionality that is included in all VS versions. In the Prerequisites dialog you can check "create setup" if you need that.
Pro and Standard (2008) edition also has msi setup projects for more advanced setups.

 

[Johnson]

Well my requirments are, to be able to choose installed dir, add desktop/quick launch/start menu entrys and to be able to run after installation.

which do you rekon would fit me best?

 

[JohnH]

Well, you can't choose install dir with ClickOnce, most users have no need to do that.

A setup project can add shortcut to desktop, to quick lauch toolbar I don't know. Both can also be added from app at runtime, for example at first startup or from a Options dialog. For ClickOnce apps this is a "application reference" file rather than a "shortcut". VB 2008 SP1 has "desktop shortcut" option for ClickOnce also.

 

[Johnson]

c lick once actually pretty much does what i want. I have managed to code my app to do the rest on first time load.

Just the only thing i dont like is it does not let me change the start menu entry name

has it as 'windows xp home user' in the list

 

[JohnH]

How to: Specify a Start Menu Name for a ClickOnce Application
These values should be derived from the Assembly Information in project properties, but you should check this.