Creating an installation file

[ryanlum]

hey guyz...
how do you create an installation file?

[Kirun]

pasted from MSDN ,i assume you are talking about this

Note The Setup Wizard is not available in the Standard Edition of Visual Basic .NET. For more information, see Visual Basic Standard Edition Features.
To access the Setup Wizard, on the File menu, point to Add Project, then click New Project. In the Add New Project dialog box, click the Setup and Deployment Projects node, and then click Setup Wizard.

Choose a project type
Specifies the type of deployment project that will be created. You can create a setup (Windows Installer) project for a Windows or Web application, create a merge module to be shared by other applications, or package files in a Cab file.
Choose project outputs to include
Specifies project outputs to be added to the deployment project. You can select one or more outputs from the list of all outputs available in the solution. When an output is selected, the Description field displays a description of that output.
Choose files to include
Specifies additional files to be included for deployment. Use the Add button to browse for additional files, or use the Remove button to remove files from the list.
Summary
Provides a summary of the options selected for the deployment project.

[ryanlum]

hey
i did that already
but i cannot find the setup file in the folder that i specified....

[tr333]

if you want to create a setup .exe (like InstallShield installer) then try InnoSetup (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php).

[ryanlum]

visual studio doesn't provide an installer?
kinda wierd...

[ryanlum]

any idea?

[ryanlum]

help

[ryanlum]

i want to create an installer.. like the packaging thing that can be found in vb 6

[Malim]

Did you look in the bin directory where your project resides? That should be where your setup.exe files are.

[Malim]

Oops, I goofed. It shouldn't be in the bin directory. That's where your .exe file is. But, it should be in the setup file that your setup project created. In the debug directory. You should see Setup.exe, Setup.ini and Setup*.msi.

Did you look there for your setup.exe?

[ryanlum]

yiah i did.. but i cannot find the exe file.. just the files that i choose to copy during the setup process..
i am suppose to create exe file somewhere else?

[Malim]

Can you give more information about what you did?

Did you add a setup project to your solution? If so, you woud have walked through pointing to your application.exe in the bin folder and then setting up the dependencies and the target customization in terms of whether users would have a icon on their desktop to start the app, whether the setup needed to check for the .net framework and mdac, etc.?

If you went through this process .net created a seperate project that should be in the same directory as your project solution. The VB.net default directory's name is Setup1. Within the Setup1 directory there are some sub directories one of which is the debug directory. Your setup.exe should be in there if this is how you did your set up.

You can look in solution explorer and see if you have a setup project associated with your project. If not, then you either did it another way. It should be at the bottom of your solution explorer window.

If you want to create a setup.exe file in vb.net this is an easy way to do it.

[ryanlum]

hey.. i did not make an exe file for my entire program.. how do i do that... and when i created the setup file.. after installing it.. it just included all the files that i selected but not the entire project...


is there a way to create an executable? so that if i double click on it it will run the entire program?

[Malim]

When you build your project, it automatically makes an executable file in the bin directory. In fact, any time you start your project to step through your code it automatically makes an executable. I'm not at work so I don't have VS, this might not be exactly right, there is a Build option on the menu select it, and click build. You can find it. (But, you probably already have an executable in your bin directory if you've completed development and thoroughly debugged your code.)

Let's say you have a project named Project1. Look in the project1 directory, then in the bin folder, and your .exe should be there.

If you created a setup file from the using the VS setup project, and you didn't point to your exe then, your setup project won't work. Because it won't have an application to install.

[ryanlum]

hey.. when we select the files to put in... do we need to sleect all the forms and all?
then do we need to select all the folders thata re inside also?

[Malim]

No - you need to select the .exe. file though. And, any dependencies. Like, if you have an app that has Crystal reports you have to select all the Crystal Reports merge modules.