(newbie) standalone app design criteria?

[Keith R]

This post was triggered by a post of Wendy Elizabeth a few days ago, which
got me thinking.



I still consider myself a newbie (hobby programmer, basic stuff only) so
this is really a conceptual question. I'm posting in this group because I
only have experience with VB (some simple 2003/2005 winforms apps, some 2003
CF, and a whole lot of VBA).



At work I'm in a locked-down IT environment (WinXP; can't change the
registry, which prevents many 3rd-party apps from installing). However, I've
found a few apps that I can use them without problems just by running the
..exe (some countdown timers, hex editor, etc.). I recognize that these are
fully compiled apps, and likely not built on .Net.



This also brings to mind some of the USB articles I recall seeing maybe a
year or so ago with 'software on a stick' where the software could be run on
any PC that doesn't lock out the USB ports, and save settings back to the
USB stick for future sessions (personal browser, etc). Truly portable
software, not the sticks that also have a bootable OS installed on
them.Again, I recognize these are probably not built on .Net



So if I want to develop (with my current tools) any simple winforms programs
to use at work, they'd have to be usable without touching the registry. In
the past with my VS/VB apps I haven't had to worry about the registry (on my
home PC) so I've never learned what the built-in installers were actually
doing, I just let them do their magic. What I don't know is whether it is
possible (with some assumptions about the .Net framework being installed) to
do something similar in VB.Net



I still have VS2003 and VB2005Express, and plan to upgrade to VS2008 before
mid-year. Knowing that VS programs are dependent on the .Net framework, what
(if any) approach would be optimal to try to create applications that don't
require "installation" in the traditional sense (registry changes, etc.)? I
can base any code on the 2.0 framework for maximum compatibility, but are
there any reference documents that describe whether "standalone" (e.g. no
registry interaction) apps can be created in VS, and recommended approaches
so I can determine if it is worth the time to learn how to do this?



Worst case scenario is I can buy VB6 on Ebay, but I don't have any urgent
functionality I'm trying to program- I'm just interested in knowing if I can
do it with my current tools, in case a need arises.



Many thanks,

Keith

 

[Guest]

This also brings to mind some of the USB articles I recall seeing
maybe a year or so ago with 'software on a stick' where the software
could be run on any PC that doesn't lock out the USB ports, and save
settings back to the USB stick for future sessions (personal browser,
etc).

Take a look at U3 - it's supposed to do the software on a stick thing.
Never used it myself, but it does seem to be gaining popularity.

So if I want to develop (with my current tools) any simple winforms
programs to use at work, they'd have to be usable without touching the
registry.

The application won't use the registry unless you explicitly do so.

In the past with my VS/VB apps I haven't had to worry about
the registry (on my home PC) so I've never learned what the built-in
installers were actually doing, I just let them do their magic. What I
don't know is whether it is possible (with some assumptions about the
.Net framework being installed) to do something similar in VB.Net

Yes - .NET supports XCOPY deployment. Provided your application doesn't
have any registry entries, custom setup, COM registration, etc. etc. you
can just copy your application to the deployment folder (i.e. USB drive)
and run it from there.

Note that UNC paths are different - .NET has CAS (code access security)
and certain locations such as UNC/Network Paths have restricted access.

Worst case scenario is I can buy VB6 on Ebay, but I don't have any
urgent functionality I'm trying to program- I'm just interested in
knowing if I can do it with my current tools, in case a need arises.

As long as the .NET framework is installed you should be able to do a
drag and drop deployment