I have created a VB.Net application that I plan to distribute using the .exe file in the Release folder. Upon sending this to a user, I was informed that it would not run on their system. The exe runs fine on my system no matter the location of the file so it's not a folder dependency. I don't have easy access to another computer, so is there an easy way to test my file as if visual basic were not installed on my system?
Edit: By "does not run" I mean nothing occurs when the exe is clicked
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I'm developping a simple application in Visual Studio in VB.NET language. I say simple because it doesn't need any install, it's a standalone exec file. This programm is stored into a network location to make it available to all employees of my company, but I'm working regularly on it, and the problem is that if anyone is using this app (launched from network), I can't replace file because it is currently used.
Is there any way in VB to launch a Windows Form application with its .exe and make this file still available for any modification?
I've solved a similar problem like this:
each user has it's own copy of exe
when the program is launched (or in a timer loop) compare network file modified date (or version number or some other flag) with local copy
if network file is newer, notify user that there's a new version available to download
(conditionally) start a small helper program which copies new files to local folder, close current exe and launch it from downloader (helper) again after it copies all new files
I created a simple application in VB.net in Visual Studio 2013.
It's not a website or a web app, it's just a simple Calculator, I think I created it as a Windows Forms Application.
When I build the application in release mode, it builds and runs properly.
It puts the executable it built in: Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\DataCalculator\DataCalculator\bin\Release
I can just send that executable alone to someone and the program works fine. So what is the purpose of all the other files?
Furthermore, there is a Publish button in the Build menu of VS2013. What does publishing the program do that the the release doesn't?
Also, when I click the publish button it asks me how the user will install the application. What if I don't want them to install it, I just want it to run from a simple click of the executable. So what is the purpose of publishing?
If by "all the other files" you mean .application, .manifest, .pdb, etc., they all have uses in various contexts. If your calculator is stand-alone, then it will only require the .NET Framework version you used to create it installed and the .exe itself.
I have used the Publish feature a few times - at a previous company - it's useful for 'transparent updates' to users. For example, the tools I created were published to a shared drive on the server along with the associated "other files". The users then installed the tool from the shared drive by clicking on the setup/install version, which creates a shortcut on their start menu/desktop/wherever. The beauty of this particular method, is that you can configure the application to automatically update when it is run; so I continuously improved the tools and every time a user ran one, it copied the newer exe to their PC and ran that, without any further updates/reinstalls from their perspective.
It worked quite well for small engineering tools, but I'm sure with larger/more complex applications with databases and backward-compatibility to worry about, it could cause headaches in many situations.
Release will only create an .EXE Application file which is executable in supported platforms, but database must be separately copied . where as publish will create a setup file along with database and the sub folders inside the project folder. It helps you to install your application in any computer which meets the requirements.
Click to refer Advantages and procedure for publish http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms233806(v=vs.100).aspx
I've made a simple calculator. My VB.Net (WinForm) App is inside Bin\Debug.
I have some files. These are the files:
AppName.exe
AppName.pdb
AppName.vshost.exe
AppName.vshost.exe.manifest
AppName.xml
What I want to do is to run my app on another computer. I've installed the right
Framework, in this case is 4.0
Could anybody help me telling me if I've got to copy all files (to the other computer) to run my app, or just the AppName.exe is enough?
Build your application in Release mode and then copy the contents of bin\Release to the other computer. Create a shortcut on the new computer to AppName.exe and rename it to an appropriate name if you wish.
Note: Building in Release mode does not include the .pdb files, which are necessary for proper debugging and it also optimizes the compiled code.
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 would like to make my windows form app self updating when it starts. Where can I find good information for that?
I am using Visual Studio 2008 VB.NET.
I like the click once approach. With this application I have an access db as the backend datastore. When the application self updates how can I be sure the mdb file is not overwritten?
What is the best way to self upgrade the mdb if their is a change to the mdb file but not loose the data?
If you deploy using ClickOnce, you get this functionality for free. I do not have any experience with this (yet), but I can point you to an article.
I have been using Click Once for years with very little problems.
I've written a custom automatic updater and basically, the way it works is this:
The whole application is essentially 3 parts:
A launcher .exe that's essentially like a bootstrapper
The launcher .exe has an embedded .exe resource that is used if the launcher .exe itself needs to be updated
The application dll's
When you start the application, the launcher app starts and checks via webservices if the dll's are up to date. If they are not, it downloads them to a temporary directory and then makes sure the checksums are all correct and overwrites the existing app libraries with the new ones. It's then loading the application's core assembly and calls a "Run" method via reflection.
Now, in our app we sometimes have the need to update the launcher itself and the way we achieved this is by embedding an .exe in the launcher .exe resources. If the launcher detects that there is a new launcher .exe available, it downloads it to a temp directory, then extracts the .exe and launches it. This extracted .exe simply shuts down the launcher process, copies the new launcher .exe over the old one and then starts the launcher process again.