[RESOLVED] Simple Windows Forms exe - what should I use?

[djmcbell]

I'm relatively new to VB - while I've been using VBA for a while and have touched on VB before I'm basically self-taught.

In any case, I want to create something which is basically some Windows Forms. This is to be distributed on a CD.

At the moment I'm using Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition. This is all fine and dandy apart from installing the .net elements. I don't want any installations - I just want something that will run without any fuss.

When I briefly used VB a few years back I used a version which did this (basically did a few brief projects). Unfortunately I can't remember which version I used. Probably VB6.

Can anyone point me in the right direction and, hopefully, let me know of a free version I can use?

[BadgerBadger]

As long as the machines you are running the app on have the same target framework as the one you chose during development, there shouldn't be any need to install anything else on the system.
If I was you I would stick to Express Edition, but then again I am a biased towards the .NET Framework.

[djmcbell]

Unfortunately there's no way to guarantee that. The program will be going out to third-parties (they are not paying for it, it's a promotional CD) so they can be running anything. Also the industry it's for isn't known for being PC literate so installing ANYTHING would be a big turn-off. Heck, I've tried it on other PCs here and they still require the .net framework.

[BadgerBadger]

If you don't know if the systems will have the framework installed, then as you previously mentioned, you will most likely get installations running. I suppose the only way to guarantee there will be no installations would be to use VB6 or any other language that does not require the framework. If you want to try other Microsoft IDEs, you could try Visual C++ EE and build native C++ instead of managed (.NET).

[djmcbell]

Thanks - will give VB6 a try (when I can find it). I've never used Visual C++ and my knowledge of C++ is in quite a different area (some GBA and DS programming a few years back) so I'll continue on the VB path.

[BadgerBadger]

Gotcha, best of luck! I personally can't stand VB6 so props to you for giving it a try.

[chris128]

Unfortunately there's no way to guarantee that. The program will be going out to third-parties (they are not paying for it, it's a promotional CD) so they can be running anything. Also the industry it's for isn't known for being PC literate so installing ANYTHING would be a big turn-off. Heck, I've tried it on other PCs here and they still require the .net framework.

Well you dont need to get them to install the framework themselves, either use a free installer program like INNO Setup (or something like that) or use the ClickOnce publishing feature that comes with VB Express and that will install the .NET framework if the user has not already got it installed, then install your program. Dont forget that anyone with either Windows Vista or Windows 7 will already have atl east version 3.0 installed and anyone that has got automatic updates turned on (even on XP) will have version 3.5 installed. Even most non computer literate people understand that programs have to be installed before you can use them.

[JuggaloBrotha]

If you use VS 2008 and have your app target the 2.0 Framework (make sure all the other 3rd party stuff targets the 2.0 Framework too) then in today's day & age your cd should be fine as WinXP has the 2.0+ Frameworks being pushed via Windows Updates as critical updates.

[djmcbell]

I probably shouldn't have posted this as resolved as it's still giving me a bit of trouble, but now sounds like I should be able to resolve it.

chris128 - I don't want to have it install anything, that would frighten people (I'm dealing with easily scared people - some of the people I've helped kept trying to put CDs in the floppy drive). So having the ClickOnce feature is a bit of a grey area.

However, as both you and JuggaloBrotha have said, it should be fine with Vista or 7 (I keep meaning to look into Windows 7 - Vista however I couldn't get used to at all) and, if I target the 2.0 framework it should do fine. Any where it doesn't (which shouldn't be that much to be honest) will just have to suck up the .net framework install.

Thanks for your help - hopefully this sorts out a lot of the fuss.