Deploying a WinForms app on Vista

[David Jackson]

Hello,

I'm looking for some best practice advice on deploying a 32-bit WinForms app
on 32-bit Vista as regards file locations.

The app will be written in Visual Studio.NET 2005 and will be compiled into
a single executable with some values stored in the app.config file - the
user needs to be able to update these values.

The app also will use a Jet database.

On XP, I would simply have deployed the whole thing to C:\Program
Files\<app>

Is that still the recommended deployment location under Vista?

Although the app will be installed by an administrator, the users of the app
will be ordinary users.

Will there be any problems here with ordinary users having write access to
the C:\Program Files\<app> folder so that the app can update the config file
and write to the Jet database?

Thanks,

DJ

 

[Jesse Houwing]

* David Jackson wrote, On 11-6-2007 13:41:

Hello,

I'm looking for some best practice advice on deploying a 32-bit WinForms app
on 32-bit Vista as regards file locations.

The app will be written in Visual Studio.NET 2005 and will be compiled into
a single executable with some values stored in the app.config file - the
user needs to be able to update these values.

The app also will use a Jet database.

On XP, I would simply have deployed the whole thing to C:\Program
Files\<app>

Is that still the recommended deployment location under Vista?

Although the app will be installed by an administrator, the users of the app
will be ordinary users.

Will there be any problems here with ordinary users having write access to
the C:\Program Files\<app> folder so that the app can update the config file
and write to the Jet database?

Thanks,

DJ

DJ,

if you want your users to be able to update the config settings
themselves, then have a look at the way user settings are stored in .NET 2.0

It basically involves adding a .settings file to your project (view the
project properties, it has a settings tab). Add the settings you want to
be customizable and set them either to Application (stored in the
program's installation folder and hard to change) or User (stored in the
Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming folder).

I'd advise very strongly against giving the user write access to the
program files directory. This was true under Windows XP, but now with
UAC and stricter default settings a real pain under Windows Vista.

Jesse Houwing