VB newbie Q - Create .exe in VB.NET

[Guest]

I have previously used VB6 to create very simple .exe's by using the "Make
<ProjectName>.exe item on the File menu. Is there a similar item in VB.NET.
I don't see it anywhere. If not, how is this done? I am creating a small
database (Access 2000) front end for my office and need .exe to distribute.

Thanks in advance

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Digger,

Probably the Build menu the build exe comes in obj/debug or obj/release

I hope this helps?

Cor

 

[B.Newman]

I think the only way to do this is to create an Installer project in
your solution.

Right-click on your solution, Add, New Project, Setup and Deployment
Projects, Setup Project. Name it whatever you like.
Once you have that created, right-click on it, Add, Project Output,
choose your main project and choose Primary Output.

Now you can build your installer project, and it will create three
files. Distribute those files to your end user machines and have them
run setup.exe, and it will install everything for them. You can delve
deeper into the installer settings to do things like create special
subdirectories, Program menu shortcuts, etc.

You can test your installer yourself. Once you have it set up, go to
the Project menu and choose Install to test it. Or you can just run
setup.exe normally.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

I have previously used VB6 to create very simple .exe's by using the "Make
<ProjectName>.exe item on the File menu. Is there a similar item in
VB.NET.
I don't see it anywhere. If not, how is this done? I am creating a small
database (Access 2000) front end for my office and need .exe to
distribute.

Take a look at the different commands in the "Build" menu. VB 2005 will
IIRC come with a menu item as known from VB6 again. Make sure you only
distribute release versions of your binaries. You can select "Release" from
a combobox that is embedded into VS.NET's toolbar to generate a release
build.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. However, found a very simple way to do
this.
With the project open, go to the build menu and select "Configuration
Manager". In the Config. Man. change the configuration to "Release".
Go back to the Build menu and select "Build Solution".
This will create a Bin folder in the same folder where the project is
located. The .exe will be located there.

 

[Andy O'Neill]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. However, found a very simple way to
do
this.
With the project open, go to the build menu and select "Configuration
Manager". In the Config. Man. change the configuration to "Release".
Go back to the Build menu and select "Build Solution".
This will create a Bin folder in the same folder where the project is
located. The .exe will be located there.

Every time you run a project using f5 or whatever, an exe will be created in
the apps' bin folder.
Make sure you have "release" rather than "debug" selected from the combo up
the top of the ide when you do this.
Don't you also need a config file?

 

[Greg Burns]

Changing build mode from Debug to Release is definately simpler using the
combobox on the standard Toolbar.

The configuration manager is good when you have mutliple projects in one
solution and you want to disable building of specific projects. (Why is
there a Build Solution and a Build <project> menu items? Both seem to
rebuild the whole damn solution unless you uncheck stuff in the config
manager. I've never got the hang of that. I assume it has to do with
dependicies...)

An app.config file in your project is not a requirement. A web.config is
required for ASP.NET though.

My understanding is when you Build it creates the .exe etc. in the obj\debug
or obj\release folder depending on build type. Then it copies those files
to the \bin folder to run them in IDE.

I usually just "XCopy" the files straight from the \bin folder for
deployment on our lan. I never bother with an installation project, but I
do all in-house stuff.

Greg