Creating exe with express edition

[Jon12345]

I have a Visual Basic project that needs compiling to an exe. Can you do this with the express edition or only the paid version?

Thanks,

Jon

[jmcilhinney]

Every time you run the project you are compiling to an EXE, although it is a Debug version. Use the Build menu to create a Release version.

[Jon12345]

Is that Debug > Build "bot name" ?

[paulorton]

Butting in on this thread...

I have just tried out the Build/Publish option in the 2010 Express edition and was also wondering what advantages there might be to having the full, paid edition of Visual Studio. The process of publishing was incredibly simple and, more importantly, worked first time but a couple of thoughts occurred:

1. The process offered me no options for customising the process and I imagine the paid for VS would offer plenty - are they worth having for a hobby programmer like myself (although I *am* writing a niche program for maybe 100 or so potential users that could potentially earn me a little money).

2. Probably an illustration of 1. - when I looked for my installed program on Start/All programs it had been placed in a program group called Mesh Computers (the make of the development machine). Of course it's a nonsense to put my program into such a group but I had no way of stopping this happen (as far as I know).

[paulorton]

Further to the above...

The application isn't installed into C:\Program Files as I would have expected but instead into Users....AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenu\Programs (how bizarre is that?). Here there is a ClickOnce Application File (1kb) and nothing else, no data files, nothing.

Does anyone have any thoughts about all this?

[despotovski01]

You can just build your application into an .exe file(not installer). To build your application, click Debug in the menu strip, and then Build in the context menu.
Optionally, you can create a user-friendly installer with other software, like Install Creator or InstallShield. They are great tools that allow you to create your own installers for your software. Feel free to check them out!

[paulorton]

Thanks, but what if my user doesn't have .Net Framework 4, or the Jet engine (although that's probably included in the Framework)?

BTW, I don't have a Build option under Debug - I assume you meant the standalone Build menu item.

[jmcilhinney]

The Jet database engine is basically part of Windows, so everyone has it. If the user doesn't have .NET 4.0 installed then either they need to install it themselves or your app needs to come with an installer that will do it for them.

VB Express supports only ClickOnce deployment, which is enough for most simple projects. It has some advantages and some disadvantages over the alternatives. It is simple, supports automatic updates and will work even for users with limited accounts, but it doesn't support installing COM components or Registry editing. Full editions of VS will support ClickOnce as well as Windows Installer via Setup projects and also InstallShield LE. You can also use third-party tools outside VS, including free options like Inno and NSIS.

Did anyone read post #2? I said days ago to use the Build menu to create an EXE. Building will compile the source files into an EXE and publishing will wrap that EXE into a ClickOnce installer. Using the Debug menu is only for debugging, i.e. during development.