Chapter 18

Deploying Desktop Applications

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER

  • An overview of deployment options
  • How to deploy a Windows application with ClickOnce
  • How to create a Windows Installer deployment package
  • How to install an application with Windows Installer

There are several ways to install Windows applications. Simple applications can be installed with a basic xcopy deployment, but for installation to hundreds of clients, an xcopy deployment is not really useful. For that situation, you have two options: ClickOnce deployment or the Microsoft Windows Installer.

With ClickOnce deployment, the application is installed by clicking a link to a website. In situations where the user should select a directory in which to install the application, or when some registry entries are required, the Windows Installer is the deployment option to use.

This chapter covers both options for installing Windows applications.

NOTE The InstallShield Limited Edition tool that is used in the second section of this chapter is not part of Visual Studio out of the box. To get it, open Visual Studio and select File image New image Project, and then select Other Project Types image Setup and Deployment. Double-click ...

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