I inherited a Windows Forms Application (.NET Framework 4) that uses ClickOnce for installation. Everything is working perfectly except I cannot seem to set the default installation path. Currently it gets installed to:
%appdata%\Local\Apps\2.0\xxx
where xxx is some randomly created path. This is causing problems with out virus scanner which is deactivating the program randomly. We cannot exclude the 2.0 directory from scanning as other programs that are not under our control also install to this folder.
I found this online:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c6e3d328-1deb-49c9-99cf-98fe3830702a/where-does-clickonce-put-files?forum=winformssetup
where it states that I can set:
System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.DataDirectory
to set the data directory -> which might set the program directory as well?
I just cannot seem to find where I can set this path - Any ideas? I have never used ClickOnce before (and am new to Visual Studio) so please give me clear instructions.
Thanking you in advance
see comment:
The data directory is where data files, e.g. MDF and MDB files, get stored. You can't set the install location of a ClickOnce app. They get installed to the ClickOnce cache, which is what makes them ClickOnce apps. – jmcilhinney
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I have a vb.net Windows Form that is launched from the .application file - no installing done. I have an issue on some users' machines where they can't launch the application unless they go into their C:\Users\%userprofile%\local settings\apps\ folder and delete folder "2.0".
How can I prevent the application from using/creating that cache? All user settings are stored server-side and pulled down on open.
I've found AN answer, maybe not the best, but it works.
Turns out, ClickOnce is the problem. I haven't been able to figure out how to deploy without it, however it can be bypassed. Within the deployment folder, you've got an Application Files folder, and a [Project Name]_[version] folder. Within that is the .exe for your application, within the ClickOnce wrapper.
If your application, like mine, doesn't use non built-in controls, you don't actually need ClickOnce, as far as I can tell. So having users run that .exe, rather than the .application file within the deployment folder will prevent the "2.0" cache folder, as well as preventing the ClickOnce install and loading form - resulting in a faster open.
Hope that helps someone.
I am using Visual Studio 2010 and coding in VB.NET.
I have gone through the publish section in the program properties.
There is a Publish Location section and I have that set where I want,
but when you install the program, it never asks where you want to install it
and it installs in the the User AppData folder.
In the publish properties there is a section for Installation Folder URL.
But it only will allow a web url and not a file path.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You are confusing ClickOnce setups (that's the Publish) and MSI setups (which require you to create a setup project to buold an MSI file). ClickOnce doesn't sound like what you need if you want files in the UserAppDataFolder location.
I've created my first Office Add-in using Visual Studio. It targets the 4.0 .Net framework and was created using the new VS 2012. I need to distribute/install this project on various 32-bit XP and 64-bit Windows 7 computers around the office. So I configured the project to be installed on XP (which was my first speed bump because I didn't realize VS 2012 needed an update in order to make a solution that was XP compatible). Now that I have a valid win32 application, I am getting another error:
The following error occurred attempting to install 'C:\filepath...\Import Contacts.vsto':
"No application is associated with the specified file for this operation."
After doing some digging, I think I need to install the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime on the client computer. To do this, I would like to use the prerequisites properties for the project. So I read up on creating custom prerequisites using some noteworthy sites (e.g, Creating Bootstrapper Packages, Application Deployment Prerequisites, Adding Custom Prerequisites, and Creating a Bootstrapper package for Office 2013 in Visual Studio 2012). I created the files according to that last URL (even though I'm not sure it pertains to the package I need just yet), but it is not appearing in the dialog box under Project > Properties > Publish > Prerequisites
If you read the article, it says the VS prerequisites dialog box should automatically update once I restart VS 2012, which I did but to no avail. I know I'll need to use this feature again in the future, so I would really like to know what I'm doing wrong and fix this. Please help! And I promise to quickly give the ACCEPT to whoever helps me fix this problem! Thank you in advance.
I didn't have any problems following the directions given in the web page and got the bootstrapper added to the Prerequisites dialog. However, there are plenty of possible ways to get it wrong. Some possibilities:
Triple-check the folder you added these files to. Be sure that you picked Program Files (x86) on a 64-bit version of Windows and not Program Files. And be sure that you now see the added VSTOR40 folder along with the other existing bootstrapper folders, like ReportViewer and VBPowerPacks.
You do not have write permission to this folder, UAC prevents copying files there. Be sure that you managed to copy them from, say, an elevated command prompt. Right-click the Command Prompt shortcut and click "Run as Administrator".
If you created the .xml files with Notepad then make sure you didn't accidentally saved them with the .txt extension. If necessary, put Explorer in "programmer mode" so you can see the filename extensions. Control Panel + Folder Options, View tab, untick the "Hide extensions for known file types" checkbox. If you now see product.xml.txt then rename the file to product.xml, same for package.xml.txt
If you created the .xml files with Notepad then be sure to save the file in UTF-8 encoding. File + Save As, Encoding combobox.
For all those who still may face similar issue I think that I found the cause of this issue. It seems that copying folder with custom bootstrapper package (and all necessary files in it) does not "refreshes" the list of available packages. Only when i went through this walkthrough and manually created folder in %Programfiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\ for sample package from this walkthrough my package has shown
Is it possible to create a VB.Net application which users can just run without installing it first.
If not, is 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.
I have created an shareware application using vb.net visual studio 2008 for windows desktop, and packaged it using innosetup 5.3.8. The problem is when i have installed the application in C:\Program Files\Application and it runs successfully(use trial period of the application), Im also able to install the application once again freshly with the same setup by installing in different directory.eg C:\Program Files\Application new . The application in C:\Program Files\Application new does not have any settings of the already installed one.
Where do i went wrong . Do i need to take care of this in my application(vb.net) or innosetup. How to take care of the already installed path in innosetup or carry the settings of already installed application to newly installed path by upgrading the older one.
I dont want to write any thing in registry because the application does not want any administrative permission requirements.If i install the application in same path it gets updated with the older settings being taken over to this new one and it works fine.
Windows applications normally save their settings in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\YourCompany\YourApp or as files under %APPDATA%\YourCompany\YourApp. Both locations can be written to without admin privileges, and both locations are user-specific. That is, if two users use the same computer, both can use your application with their own settings without affecting the other user.
You should never save any settings under c:\Program Files. Writing to the Program Files folder requires admin privileges. If your application does not have a manifest then writing to Program Files may appear to work. What is really happening is that the files you're writing to the Program Files folder are rerouted to the VirtualStore. Unless the system administrator has disabled the VirtualStore. Then your application will fail.
If you want your application to be robust, it should only save settings to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\YourCompany\YourApp and/or %APPDATA%\YourCompany\YourApp. Your application should use its default setting if no previously saved settings can be found in these locations.