best practices for distributing .net apps

[Krish]

hi all,

i'm wondering if there are any best practices for distributing apps
which require the .net framework to run.

i've read about using the .net bootstrapper which will install the .net
framework as a step in the regular apps' installation if the user
doesn't have the framework. however, when i include the dotnetfx
redistributable the size of the download is about 23mb as opposed to
300k for my app.

i'd like people who already have the .net framework to just download
the 300k app and others to download the 23mb file but i don't want to
make users decide what they should do. any ideas?

thanks,
krish

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Krish,

You can always create two separate installs, and direct the person to
the proper install based on the user agent string (for IE, it includes the
latest .NET runtime installed on the machine).

However, I don't think that this is a good idea. Rather, if you can, I
would check out ClickOnce, which is a new feature (to put it lightly) in
..NET 2.0. It will handle things like this (installing prerequisites). It's
pretty involved, but is very flexible in terms of helping with
installations.

Hope this helps.

 

[Krish]

Thanks! I'll check out ClickOnce. The only thing is that I'm
currently developing using .NET 1.1. Not sure if this would present
problems.

One option I had considered was having every user download a small file
which could check the appropriate registry key for the version of .NET.
Based on this I was thinking that this small file could spawn a
download of either the 300k or 23mb file. Is this type of thing
discouraged?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

One option I had considered was having every user download a small file
which could check the appropriate registry key for the version of .NET.
Based on this I was thinking that this small file could spawn a
download of either the 300k or 23mb file. Is this type of thing
discouraged?

Microsoft uses this method to distribute major patches so I'd assume it's
acceptable. Considering the small base size of your app however you might be
better off putting the check inside the installer and DLing the framework
then if needed.