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Thread: Best Practices Apps for Flash Drive

  1. #1

    Thread Starter
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    Best Practices Apps for Flash Drive

    VS 2010
    Visual Basic

    I am in the initial stages designing an application that can be installed on a flash drive and would be very portable between different computers.

    The application will be distributed in form of a zip file and will be installed by the user on their flash drive. The application should be as portable as possible so the flash drive can be moved from computer to computer working under Windows XP - Windows 7.

    DataGridView is a must but using database would be nice but not required. Also, recommended method of installion on flash-drive and if manual is required the core files required. I would maybe consider having a secondary program that would install any required components on secondary computers but would like to avoid this if possible.

    The actual application and data would be on the flash drive.

    Thank you in advance for initial suggestions and advice. Especially in regards to .Net framework requirement etc.

    Chemaster
    Last edited by chemaster; Mar 20th, 2011 at 10:10 AM.

  2. #2
    Super Moderator jmcilhinney's Avatar
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    Re: Best Practices Apps for Flash Drive

    There's no installation needed for a simple app. All you need is the files, i.e. the EXE and any files on which it depends, e.g. CONFIG, DLLs, data files, etc. If you use Access as a database then you don't need anything else for data access as it's all built into Windows. If you use SQL Server CE as a database then you can deploy a few DLLs with your EXE. There may well be other options that require no extra installation too, but they are the only ones I've used.

    The only specific requirement your app will have, unless you create others, is that the appropriate version of the .NET Framework is installed. Windows XP has no Framework installed by default and Windows 7 has 2.0 to 3.5 installed by default. If I recall correctly, Vista has 2.0 installed by default, but it may only be 1.1. If you want to reach the widest audience without the need to install a new Framework version, target 2.0, which VS 2010 can do.

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