How Do I make my project an Exe?

[F-MAX]

I think my whole question is in my title, how can I make my VB.NET project an .exe?

 

[TechGnome]

Up at the top of the IDE there's a toolbar that has a dropdown with Relesae and Debug in it. Select Release.... The right click your solution in the solution explorer, and select ReBuild. You will then find your app and everything in the bin folder of the project folder.

-tg

 

[JuggaloBrotha]

eveytime you run your app (even to test the latest additions) the IDE compils it to an exe (and dll if you have user made controls in the project) then runs the exe file, so as long as you've ran the program once while making it, you've got an exe file

and as TechGnome as pointed out when you're done making the project have it compile as Release and you'll find the exe (and dll's) in the Bin folder of the project folder

 

[F-MAX]

That doesn't work for me, I get an error on the test computer. I dont remember what it is right away though... I'll write it down and get it back here.

 

[JuggaloBrotha]

that error probably means you dont have the .Net framework installed on the test computer

the .Net framework needs to be installed on the development computer, any testing computers, and any other computer that might run the .Net program

there isnt a way around this either, but the .net framework is a free download anyways, so everyone running windows can run any .net program

 

[F-MAX]

Doesn't that sort of clip VB.NET's usefulness in half?

 

[TechGnome]

Why? It's no different from needing the VB6Runtime files.... It's just that .NET hasn't been around long enough that all systems have the Framework. Eventualy (probably with Vista) Windows will automaticaly ship with the Framework loaded and you won't need to do anything about it. But in the meantime....

-tg

 

[F-MAX]

But untill then it's very annoying, I've checked, the framework is about 20mb? Thats alot just to run my simple program... Makes it all sorta pointless... But still have to check to make sure the framework will even solve my problem.

 

[TechGnome]

Well, you know, that's how it is.... basically you have two options... 1) deal with it, 2) Try a different platform.

-tg

 

[JuggaloBrotha]

to expand on TechGnome's last post here, it does come down to deal with it or program in a different language

the framework's 20MB because it contains the entire base and thousands of classes that make's .Net so powerful

now would you rather inform your users that they have to install the 20MB framework once and they'll be able to download much smaller .net programs and run them

or would you rather have them download a 10 to 15MB program from you every time you make a program for them?

say you've made 4 simple .net programs
to put it more simply: would you rather download the 1 20MB file and 4 500kb files or the 4 10MB programs?

but since Windows Vista will have the .Net 2.0 Framework installed by default (just like win98 and higher come with the vb6 runtime files by default) over the next 3 to 4 years it'll start to not matter whether a program's written in .Net or vb6

 

[prabhukalyan]

Check with this.

http://www.startvbdotnet.com/extras/deploy.aspx

 

[scottbogert]

problem with method on the link

It gave me all of the info I wanted, except the fact that it's for 2003, and when I try to run the .msi, it just opens up VS.Net 2005. How do I fix that part?

~Scott