Setup project: Adding .NET and Windows Installer prerequisites results in large installer - .net-4.0

I've created my program successfully. Now, I want to publish it. I've created a Setup Project in order to make an installation file. I've added .NET 4.0 Client and Windows Installer as project prerequisites (via Setup Project Properties → Prerequisites). After that, I build my project.
This produces these files:
Setup files, .NET 4.0 Client, Windows Installer
But .NET 4.0 Client and Windows Installer make my project most biggest. So I would like to know if there is a way to make my setup file contain just the required libraries, i.e. the setup program won't install .NET on the target host?

No I don't think so - without the .net framework your are screwed here.

When you do this the .NET framework is not included in the MSI package and doesn't make the file any bigger. It is only a pre-requisite for the successful installation. So when you run the setup on the client computer if it already has the framework installed it won't do anything. If it doesn't it will ask the client to download it. You could of course remove this prerequisite but because your application is built with .NET if the client computer doesn't have the correct version installed your application won't run. So I would suggest you to leave this prerequisite in your setup project.

Related

How to create installer for ASP.NET Core windows service?

I want to create installer that will install my ASP.Net Core 3.1 app as windows service (the app code already has .UseWindowsService();).
Right now when i publish the app, there are a lot of files and i just use sc create command in cmd to install it as service (specifying .exe path).
I want to create just one exe file that will include installer and files needed for installation. I would like to have some basic ui where you could choose path if you want different path than default. It should start service after installation and set it to start automatically. Before installation it should check if service is already installed and if it is, try to start it and inform user about it.
The located at https://github.com/iswix-llc/iswix-tutorials will handle this. Build your EXE to not require .net core. If you want to install .net core as a prereq instead you'll want to use the IsWiX bootstrapper project template and add .net core to your bundle.wxs.
This short video shows the whole process that's described in the tutorial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxbcPnjfzIc

Restart needed after installing .NET Core Runtime and SDK?

We're about to deploy a netcore 2.0 application on production, but we need to install .NET Core Runtime and SDK first. Is a restart needed for the installation to take effect? Since it's production, we don't want that to happen.
We installed the following from here
x64 Installer (SDK)
x64 Installer (Runtime)
Windows Server Hosting (Runtime)
There was no need to restart the machine and nothing blew up (:
If you are creating a Windows Service using the .NET Core SDK (Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.WindowsServices) and deploying it in the target machine you need a restart (atleast a log off depending on the application you are running). Here is what happens.
Install .NET Core Runtime
Deploy a windows service.
You will notice that the command line in the windows service will be "dotnet "
Start the service. It will fail because it cannot find the tool "dotnet".
This is because the service control manager (services.msc) is not aware of the dotnet command being added to the path. So you can either do a log off (or)restart to make sure things work.
You could just install Windows Server Hosting Bundle without SDK on your production machine (actually it should be).
But then you'll get 502.3 error, and you could add a element as follows into {YourProject}.csproj file, and then it'll work like a charm.
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishWithAspNetCoreTargetManifest>false</PublishWithAspNetCoreTargetManifest>
</PropertyGroup>
Ref: https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/issues/13542
With respect to either:
.NET 6.0 Desktop Runtime (v6.0.2) - Windows x64 Installer Link
.NET 6.0 Runtime (v6.0.2) - Windows x64 Installer Link
... a reboot is not required.
I didn't have time to test:
ASP.NET Core 6.0 Runtime (v6.0.2) - Windows Hosting Bundle Installer Link
ASP.NET Core 6.0 Runtime (v6.0.2) - Windows x64 Installer Link
... but agree with #MuqeetKhan that you should ideally have both a dev && testing lower environment before performing a production install. (Though, I also understand with smaller co's, that due to constraints & battles lost; this may not be possible.)

VS2012 and Wix 3.6 - Installing .Net 4.5 with my application

I am very new to the installer world.
I have successfully made an .msi for my application and it is building with short-cuts and also uninstalls correctly.
My next goal is to package .Net 4.5 with the installer and have it be installed prior to the installation of my application.
I also have a third party application that needs to be installed. It is packaged as an msi.
From what I can gather I need to develop a Bootstraper solution to have these applications install in sequence.
Can anyone provide a guide as to how to implement an installer in such a way? My searches have come up with a bunch of partial implementations with an assumption of the design of a Wix Bootstrapper Project in Visual Studio.
I hope this helps someone. It took me 5 hours to figure it out. Maybe, my bad, but did not find anything about it in the docs or blogs.
So my scenario is: VS 2012, WIX 3.6 with Burn bootsrapper, create a Setup executable in order to check .NET Framework 4.5 and install it by downloading if not installed already. Sounds simple. And it is. Actually very.
Create your MSI installer project (WIX Setup Project), to produce an installer for your application.
Create a WIX Bootstrapper Project for your Setup executable.
Follow the instructions here, to create your Boundle.wxs
Add a reference to the WixNetFxExtension.dll which can be found in the WIX program directory.
Include the following line in your Chain:
<PackageGroupRef Id="NetFx45Redist"/>
Actually the WixNetFx extension contains a working install package definition for the .NET Framework 4.5.
As caveman_dick mentioned, Burn in WiX 3.6 supports this but you may also want to take a look at dotNetInstaller (http://dblock.github.com/dotnetinstaller/). We use it to install .NET 4.0 but I'm sure it works for installing 4.5 as well. It can also install other MSI dependencies very easily.

Deploying Winforms Application to Client Machines Application Failing on start

This is Edited from the OP. This is a VB .NET 4.0 WinForms application. There is a mysql datasource involved with this project. The target CPU is set to any. Problem: When running this application on any computer that has VS 2010 installed along with the mysql connector it runs flawlessly. When installing on a virgin system(ie. No developer environment installed) but that machine does have .net framework 4.0 installed and a mysql server without the connector installed the application falls immediately. So to fix the issue I install the mysql connector MSI. This immediately fixes the issue on the client system and it runs. The problems is that as you can see below from my Installer setup that the 2 needed DLL files for MYSQL are actually included in the installation package so should not need to be installed separately. So Why is it that using that installer from the images do I need to install the mysql connector? Any Ideas? Below is a screen shot of the References the program uses and from what I believe I do not need to deploy any of those DLL files with my application other than the 2 MYSQL DLL files. So why is this failing?? Below are images showing the project references as well as the Installer Files that are being installed in the applicaiton folder. As shown in the image the 2 mysql dll files are to be put in the application folder. There is also a screen shot showing each dll's properties for in application folder.
You answered your own question.
but that machine does have .net framework 4.0 installed and a mysql server without the connector installed the application falls immediately.
You don't need to install the connector msi package, but you do need to include the two DLL files in the application's directory. Anytime you have some dependency, you need to deploy it with your application.
Edit solution quoted from my comment:
From your update it sounds like you have a version mismatch on the
assemblies, and the references are set to Specific Version = True.
Check the version number of the assemblies on your developer machine
in the output directory, and check the version you are installing on
the client system. (You can just hover over the DLL to read the
version on the ToolTip). You can try to set Specific Version to false
by right clicking your reference and selecting properties, or simply
ensure you deploy the same version of assemblies. Your program is
looking for the versions its compiled against

.Net Framework required for ClickOnce type installers

Could you kindly advise if we need to have .NetFrameWork Installed on Client's computer, if we make setup by using ClickOnce technology?
Thanks
ClickOnce is a part of .NET Framework 2.0 and later, so yes, you need at least .NET Framework 2.0 installed on a machine in order to use it. See also here:
The installation engine for ClickOnce
is in the .NET Frameworks v2.0... as a
result, the .NET Frameworks needs to
be on the machine in order to install
a ClickOnce deployed application. The
Generic Bootstrapper (setup.exe) will
install the .NET Frameworks v2.0
before launching the ClickOnce
application deployment.