How to install a vb.net program on another computer without internet

[Anagramis]

Good day.

I had 3 courses in computer science 10 years ago and decided to go into economics. After a 6 year and continuing career in economics, I decided to dabble in code to assist my economic career. In this pursuit, I have developed some neat things, but I have a simple problem.

I code an application, hit build, hit publish, receive a setup and manifest, then put it on my usb drive. Plug the usb drive into another computer. Drag the setup and manifest to the hard drive, hit the button, a graphic regarding Launching Application comes up, then immediately a window comes up stating:

Cannot Start Application
Cannot download the application. The application is missing required files. Contact application vendor for assistance.

The errors stem from the manifest file. It says downloading the file (file path) Hello.exe.manifest did not succeed. It then follows with 3 lines of filepaths for the Hello.exe.manifest.

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About me:

I am running VB 2010 express. I made a slot machine game for my mother for her birthday one Computer A. I moved the published files to Computer B as described above to test before giving to my mother.

The game isn't too important at this point because I tried to test whether the game itself was the problem or if it was my error in lack of knowledge of how to deploy. As such, I created a program called Hello. In Hello, there is simply a form1 and a button1. When clicked, button1 displays a messagebox with some text. Not a rocket science program.

My intention is simply this:

Allow the Hello program to be put on another computer via a USB drive and then installed.

The two computers are not networked and let's assume the second computer cannot connect to the internet.

When I go to the wizard, I select the location I want to publish to. In this situation, my desktop.

Next, I select CD-ROM/DVD-ROM instead of UNC path or website. I don't know what UNC path is. I presume CD-ROM/DVD-ROM would be similar to USB drive in that it is a removal data storage item.

I chose that the application will NOT check for updates.

Finally, I receive this:

The application will be published to:
file:///C:/Users/ComputerA/Desktop/

Where I find the files, put them on the USB drive and try to install on Computer B.

Also, for more information, I can use those files on the originating computer and they do SUCCESSFULLY install and I can use the application. I have not figured out why it will not install on another computer.

Thank you for your time.

[techgnome]

The .NET Framework probably needs to be installed. check the properties of the solution/project and look for the "Prerequisites" section... make sure that the Framework is included... and chose a delivery method... I think one of those is to include it as part of the install... now be careful with this as it's going to GREATLY inflate the size of your install, since it will include the entire FW in it. Once you have all that packaged up, then you can run the install on any computer, and it will install the framework and your app.

Once a machine has the FW though, you don't need to include it with future installs, unless you use a newer version of the FW...

-tg

[Shaggy Hiker]

You may have set up some of the prerequisites to automatically download from some site. Things like the PIAs, .NET framework, and a few others can be set this way. Offhand, I forget exactly where, but it is somewhere in the Project|Properties. Obviously, you can't be having it expect to download if you don't have a connection, so you can probably fix this by changing those settings.

Keep in mind that you can also build a deployment project that can contain all the items you need. This is not quite as easy as the publish option, but it does have some advantages in that you have much finer control over where things are installed to, what icons show up, where they show up, and what other files are included. Having said that, I just noticed that you are using Express, and I think that the Deployment project type is not included in Express.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I may have been slow, but at least I also contributed some new content....useless though it is.

[SJWhiteley]

If your application is fairly trivial (does not include some additional tools/DLLs/programs, and only uses the .NET framework), you can simply copy the application directly from the 'bin' folder to your drive.

Assuming, of course, the .NET framework is installed; you can download the frameworks from Microsoft as stand-alone executable installs.