If I have a Winforms app in the Microsoft Store, and I want to upgrade it from .NET Framework to .NET 7, would it be best to package it as framework dependent or self-contained in Visual Studio?
I’d rather avoid the extra hundred megabytes of download for self-contained, but it seems like it might be more failsafe. If I package it as framework dependent and list .NET 7 as a requirement, would the Store manage the installation of .NET silently or would users who don’t have it get the same prompts requiring them to download and install it as you get when sideloading an app with ClickOnce. And should I make this make this a new, separate app (with a free install for anyone who purchased the original) or just an update if it is otherwise unchanged? I don’t want to break the app for anyone who has a working original, but who, for whatever reason can’t or won’t install .NET 7.
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A few days ago I updated a wpf program from .net4.8 to .net5. Some users now get an error message that can be seen in the picture.
These users have .NET Desktop Runtime 5.0.x installed. Apparently that is not enough. The program will not work until the SDK is installed.
My question now is, is there any way I can quickly tell whether I'm using classes or methods that need an SDK?
Do I have to adjust the publish config?
I would not like to deliver the whole framework with the program together.
Appearantly your app has a dependency on the ASP.NET runtime as well.
You will either have to download and install this one separately or remove any references to it from your app.
Check for any framework reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.App in your project files (Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">) or under Dependencies->Frameworks in Visual Studio.
I am currently shipping a WPF application that targets .NET Framework 4.7.1. Almost all Windows systems nowadays have .NET Framework 4.7.1 (or greater) already installed. For the few users that don't, my app's installer provides a link to the Microsoft's download page. All security updates are handled by Windows update.
Now, I'd like to start targeting .NET Core 3.1. Many users do not have it on their machines. How can I get my app to run on wide range of machines, without burdening the users? One solution I thought of is to have my installer download .NET Core installer from Microsoft and run it. Am I going to mess anything up on the user's system if I do this? Is it going to be updated automatically by Microsoft updates?
I have created an .msi installer. I want to further add prerequisites (such as .Net) but when I go to Setup Project properties, the Prerequisites button is disabled. How do I enable it?
Other details:
I'm using VS 2015, SQL Server 2008 R2, .Net 4.5.2, C#, WinForms, Win
10 Pro x64
My setup project is in the same solution as the main project
Prerequisities in Visual Studio Projects
In Configuration at the top of the dialog, did you try to select either Release or Debug? That should enable the Prerequisites... button.
Unecessary, outdated prerequisites?
One pet-peeve of mine: is it really necessary to include the .NET runtime as a prerequisite when most users have it installed by their deployment team (corporations) or via Windows Update (home and small office users)?
If there are security updates for the runtime, your old, embedded runtime is just a nuisance to be honest. Corporate packagers spend a great deal of time removing runtimes and prerequisites for corporate deployment where all runtime components are packaged separately in the corporate standard format. Perhaps consider making a special corporate "large scale deployment" version of your setup bundle? Just a zip with components will be very appreciated, along with a one page PDF on how to deploy them.
For the .NET framework you could just add a launch condition to abort the installation if the runtime is not found, and tell the user to get the runtime via Windows Update or from their system administrator or deployment team.
Just a thought I wanted to share with you. Prerequisites can really bloat a setup - especially when they are almost never needed like the .NET framework. In the future we will certainly pull prerequisite packages straight from online repositories and not embed anything in our main setups (and probably struggle with new security issues from that approach).
What version of the .NET Framework is included in what version of the OS?
Selectively disable versions of the .NET Framework (.NET versions overwrite each other)
WiX and other deployment technologies
Setup projects are rather limited. If you find yourself needing more features, you might want to check out the WiX toolkit.
Here is a previous answer on WiX and other deployment tools that seems to have been helpful for people: MSI vs nuget packages: which are is better for continuous delivery?
I've created a wpf application. Now I need to make an application to download it from a web site to various client machines with no server software. What are the essential requirements that need to be installed from the web to the client in order for the application to work? I am very new to this and am learning as i go along
As stated by the others you may publish your application using clickonce. An alternative approuch is to use a third party installer like wise(yee old .msi is removed from newer visual studios). MS wants you to use clickonce for deployment it may be done manually using mage, through MageUI or visual studio directly. I only use mage.exe for deployment of WPF and XBAP applications, it's nice if you have a buildserver set up and all. Just make some scripts for the deployment that you may reuse, once deployed check your manifest file to see what's included and not.
General information about clickonce.
Mage.exe located in your windows sdk for manually deployment
MageUI, useless for any live production envirnoment...
Hope it helps you some, I know this can be a pain.
Cheers,
Stian
Looking for opinions. I'm working on a mid-sized 3-tier ASP.NET project (.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005) with an Oracle on Unix back-end, some beefy MS web servers, and IE browser clients. Performance is pretty bad, and users feel the UI looks outdated as well. We may have an opportunity soon to redesign and rewrite the entire application from the ground up, and I'm wondering what the current or recommended MS platform is.
I was involved with WPF and Silverlight on a different contract when MS downgraded support for Silverlight in favor of "HTML5" for Windows 8 and Windows Phone a few years back. I'm not trying to start a flame war between how long Silverlight or even WPF will be around, but I'm looking for some modern alternatives as of today, April 2013. The one requirement we can't get around is that we can't install something on each and every user PC throughout the client organization.
My own background is in WinForms and C# more so than any of the above, but everywhere I turn it seems developing any new LOB apps in WinForms isn't done much anymore.
Whatever happened to the Application Server platform and apps run thru Remote Desktop? Does it still make sense to develop desktop apps and deploy to app servers and just put a shortcut on each user's desktop, or even map a drive letter like we used to do back in the day?
Your $0.02 would be appreciated!
I would definitely consider doing it as an internal web site.
The UI would be HTML5 using the "single page application" (SPA) for each function you need. Each function would be on a page that is loaded when the user needs it. The javascript/ajax code in the browser would interact with the web server which feeds back the raw data needed to be displayed.
Using Active Directory, you can have full security and customization per person.
If you need lots of interactivity, then you'd also want to consider including SignalR in the mix. (That is one of the "new" MS tools!)
If you can't install anything in the end users' PCs then go ASP.Net. Anything else will require installation.
You can make a web application more appealing to the users by having a good designer and a LOT of javascript. Not remotely comparable to the power and beauty of WPF, but that's your best bet.
WPF is part of the .Net framework and will not run without it installed.
Silverlight could also be an option, but it still requires an installation (although minimal, 4 MB, less-than-2 minute install), but an install anyways.
WinRT only works in Windows 8. It's not supported in lower versions (Vista, XP, 7). So I don't think it's an option as of now (unless all your users have Windows 8, of course).
And no, winforms is not an option. It's also part of the .Net framework, and even if you could get it installed, it doesn't make any sense having to deal with the limitations of it, having many much much better technologies at your disposal.