How do I run a program I made in Visual Basic on a computer without Visual Basic?

[maxprograms]

If you are using VB6 and you are targeting Win2000, Millennium, XP or Vista, you won't need an installation package, provided that you don't make use of any OCXs or external libraries. Just deploy the exe and it will work.

How does it work, i've tried to run mine by opening the program from a cd. How can I open it from a cd to run on a computer?

[DigiRev]

How does it work, i've tried to run mine by opening the program from a cd. How can I open it from a cd to run on a computer?

Generally, you would just put all the necessary runtime files in the same folder as your program. This should work, even though it's always best to provide an installation.

You can use the Package & Deployment Wizard that comes with Visual Studio 6. It will create a setup, but more importantly, put all necessary files into a folder called SUPPORT which you can just copy onto the CD.

I'm not an expert in that area, but it should work.

[Bobbles]

I never install my programs.
I just get the user to create a folder in their C drive (Directory), and place the exe into it.
Or if they wish I can pop it(and the folder) into a zip file that they can just extract.
As Exposito pointed out (if you have no dependencies) just compile the exe, and give it to them.
If your program does not write anything into it's own App.Path, then it should work from a CD.
All versions of XP (and probably Vista), already have the VB6 runtimes, so you do not need to deploy them.

PS
Occasionally I do require a dependency (eg the free SGrid2).
What I do is create a standalone installer for that, and get the user to run it once.
There is no code in that installer.
After they have done that, I can give them many different exe's (that use the grid), and they do not have to install those programs.

[DigiRev]

I've actually tried running a VB6 program on a fresh install of XP SP2 and it didn't work. Missing several files.

[Bobbles]

I am attaching a wee program.
I have left out the exe, as I assume that it would not get through ?
Compile it into an exe, and place the folder onto a cd.
Then run it from the cd. It runs ok (clicking button prints 'Hello World' on the Form).
I was using an XP Pro (SP3) drive.
It is a bare bones XP, that has never had VB installed in it, nor any VB program installed in it.
After that worked ok, I copied the folder to the C drive, and ran the exe from there.
It also worked.

[Hack]

Split into its own thread the moved to Application Deployment