Creating an installer in Visual Studio express 2010

John Burns

hi again guys,

I have been working through a book and it shown me how to get my app up and running on other machines. it says click "publish > publish application" ... when i do this it does indeed build and create a setup.exe file for me and i can install it on my PC ... however, it doesnt look like a typical installation screen with the steps ... and there is also no part i can see to add my EULA ... or any other components i want to customise my installation ... i found out that VS 2010 uses something called click once ? .... is this a light weight version of creating an installer and is limiting me .. or is it that im just not doing it correct?
when i used VS 2008 team system i could create my entire installer just how i like ... EULA and everything .... but i had to add a seperate deployment project in ... but now with VB2010 express .. its called "publish" ... and behaves no where near like 2008 did and seems very limited ??

is this just because im using a lightweight express edition of VS?

Thanks

John

2 Replies

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John Burns15y ago
ok, after som e research i have found out that the express edition has a Publish action which uses Microsofts lightweight installer called Click Once Deployemt; usually aimed at web installs.

The full editions of Visual Studio use seperate items/ projects called "setup projects". These allow the user to customise their installation and add in items and configure where the program is installed ect.

The only question i still have is this: the phe progam i create using the express edition and click once deployment create a setup.exe file .... what do i need to transfer over to a CD in order to instal on other machines? .... just the setup.exe file ... or the whole Publish folder it comes in?

thanks
Mahesh Chand15y ago
I think so. I think Express versions don't have full installer features.