.net Framework and others who run my program

Now I know that in order to run this program I just made in Visual Basic .NET that other people would need to have the .NET framework installed on their computers. But, right now, when they run the program, and they don't have the framework, it just gives a cryptic error message. No real way for them to know why.

Is there some way to check for the .net framework and notifiy the person when they run my program?

Is there a smaller package that they can download rather than the 15 MB .net framework installer?

Thanks in advance

If you use the VS Deployment wizard, it by default throws in a check for the .Net framework and gives the user a link to download the framework.

However, you can handle the check yourself on application start up, instead of install, by checking the registry for the existence of these keys...

for any .Net framework...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework

for version 1.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\policy\v1.0

for version 1.1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\policy\v1.1

Note the next version i believe will be 2.0

Quote:

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Originally posted by nemaroller
However, you can handle the check yourself on application start up, instead of install, by checking the registry for the existence of these keys...

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That won't make much sense will it? :bigyello:

In order to check the registry, the app has to be started. And the app can't start without the framework. So if the app starts there's really no need to check the registry? ;)
(Unless you just wan't the version no's)

LMAO!! :=)

Yea I guess it wouldnt... geez...

So the VS Deployment Wizard huh? Well, I only purchased the Visual Basic .Net package (not the whole studio) so I was wondering if that deployment wizard would have come with my software or is it something that I can download from microsoft?

Well, I have Visual Basic.net Standard and it seems there is no deployment wizard? What am I to do now? any suggestions??

Well, if you have the language skill, program a c++ program to check the registry for the existence of those keys. If they exist, launch ur install, if they don't, shell internet explorer sending it to the .Net redistributable download page.

Quote:

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Originally posted by casManG
Well, I have Visual Basic.net Standard and it seems there is no deployment wizard? What am I to do now? any suggestions??

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Yes there is. Right-click your solution and add a new project.
There you should see a project type call Setup and Deployment Projects.

See this thread on how to use it:http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=298706

Hope this helps.