General question about deployment strategies for Dot Net 2.0 Winfo

[Guest]

I work in a large corporation with a large amount of legacy code. It is
intended to eventually replace the legacy code with Dot Net 2.0 apps. They
have a legacy update distribution system that they are rather 'fond' of.
(i.e. it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.) It seems to be mostly a
copying system, possibly using xcopy. Every machine in the system gets its
application updates this way. There is a reluctance to use ClickOnce or the
Windows installer. Frankly these applications are for internal use only,
the security requirements are not that strict, and the code is not that
complicated.

Given that, tell me if my assumptions are correct:
In general and at a minimum, when compiling a VB Winforms app, all necessary
reference dlls and resources are copied into the bin directory. Assuming
that the target machine has Dot Net 2.0, all that is needed is to copy the
bin directory to the target machine and it should run. (As yet there is no
need for shared assemblies or other complications.)

 

[Robbe Morris - MVP C#]

That is pretty much the case. If your windows app won't run
and throws an odd and typically vague error message, you may
need to copy this dll to the bin as well:

Microsoft.Vsa.dll

(I believe it is this one. I remember having problems with this
in .NET 1.1 windows apps)