I copied my .exe, plus its vshost.exe, plus the sqlite database file it uses, but it won't run outside of Visual Studio. There's no err msg when I 2-click my .exe - it just won't run. What is it lacking?
If you're on your local box, you would need:
The main application.exe (NOT vshost.exe - These are for Visual Studio debugging only.)
application.exe.config if there are any settings associated with the app.
Any DLLs the application references. Since you're using SQLite, you likely have a dependency on some SQLite library.
If you're deploying to another computer, then you should also consider the following:
Is the .NET Framework you're targeting installed on the target computer?
You should also build in "Release" instead of "Debug", since debug DLLs may be missing.
Generally, the following files are NOT necessary:
.pdb files
Any vshost files
Related
Using Visual Studio 2017 on Windows 10, I have a WPF application with an installer created using the Visual Studio Installer extension. When I install it on another PC, the application starts but then exits within the same second. Nothing in logs.
If I add a manifest to force admin mode, its starts correct.
If I copy the files to another folder (outside program files) it starts correct.
Apparently the "program files" is restricted or something? Am I missing something in my setup/installer project? Any other ideas more than welcome!
EDIT:
I've tried to create the installer using WIX and then it runs fine. Seems to be some settings in the VS Installer extension.
You can modify the ACLs on the folder in question to allow write access by regular users (not great) or you could write the settings file somewhere else where write permission for users is standard.
There are many ways: Resolve lacking permissions.
There is another, similar answer here.
Adding a couple further links:
WiX and deployment links, various topics.
I am running on a system which I don't have administrative access on
An exe I am trying to run utilizes msvcp140.dll, and currently upon running will not run and throw an error message specifying that msvpc140.dll is missing.
Normally I would just install the dll to system32 and be done with it, however in this case I do not have administrative privileges.
Is there a way to map to this dll when running it? Some sort of batch command? Would this have to be somehow linked when compiling? Any advice?
Thanks!
you have the following options:
add the .dll to the directory where your .exe is located. This particular .dll is redistributable, meaning you can include it with your installer, although the proper way is to invoke MS VC++ redistributable installer.
recompile your application to use static linking to C++ runtime. In this case you won't need the .dll at all
I dont think you should copy msvcp140.dll into the system folder in case. System32 is a global folder, so any change of dlls in this directory can affect all installed applications.
This article from MSDN:
Describes how to deploy a Visual C++ application by copying files to
its folder.
Copy the appropriate MFC and C Run-Time (CRT) library files from the Visual Studio installation directory in the \VC\redist\version folder, and then paste them in the \Release\ folder of your MFC project.
This is also relevant for non MFC applications deployment.
detailed message box texti made a winform application on my pc and it runs fine. but when I tried to run it on another PC by copying the exe file and other dll files there , the application failed to run and all of a sudden it shows a dialog box to close the aplication.
please refer to screenshot of error.
enter image description here
Like bassfader said: One possible explanation is that your application is handling files during startup. In that case: integrate more extensive exception handling for those parts. Potentially with logging, to locate the problem
In my experience this however is more often a case of missing some kind of dependency.
Double check .NET runtimes. Lookup the target .net version in Visual Studio and run the installer on the target machine.
Investigate if your app uses any assemblies that are not part of the .NET framework. Sometimes these are not copied to the bin directory if they are in the GAC (ensure the flag "Copy Local" is set to "Always" in Visual Studio)
Ensure you have copied the whole bin folder
Check compiler output to see if you've got Platform mismatches. IIRC this can sometimes work fine on a dev machine but cause problems when Visual Studio is missing or you get to a different OS.
I would like to setup an automatic software distribution process, preferably from Microsoft Visual Studio, which builds my projects in all the different configurations and platforms, and packages all the created objects in a predefined folder tree structure.
The software distribution packages would be for Windows libraries and WDM driver projects written in C/C++. Each library has several different configurations (i.e. Windows 7 Release, Windows XP Release, MT/MD runtime compilation flags) for different platforms (i.e. x86 and x64). A similar thing is with the drivers. Without any automatic process to create a software distribution package, it's necessary to build all the different configurations for each platform and then copy the created objects to a predefined folder structure and then zip the created folder giving it a release name and version. This process is quite time consuming and error prone. Therefore, my goal is to automate this process using a clean a nice solution.
I've been researching about this for a few weeks already and have actually implemented a few different solutions. However non of the solutions I implemented until now is flawless whatsoever. Hence since this should be a problem that I guess many developers have already encountered, I would like to hear different opinions on what would be a nice and efficient way to do it.
Up until now I've tried the following:
A batch script and a Makefile to be used by NMAKE. This is not so good because it makes difficult to set the same build parameters that are set on the visual studio project.
Implemented a "deploy" target task (editing the .vcsproj files) which calls MSBuild of the project for each configuration/platform and copies the generated files to a distribution directory. This has the advantage that I can start the deploy activity from within visual studio but it also produces several environment variables problems, specially when building windows drivers.
Any ideas or suggested solutions will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Zion
If you haven't already, add a post-build step for each lib and driver which copies the built files into your specific tree and also zips them.
If you haven't already, create one Visual Studio solution (.sln file) which builds all these projects at once.
If you haven't already, set up Build configuration using the Build | Configuration Manager dialog. Now from the IDE, you should be able to specify a specific configuration and do a Build | Rebuild Solution and make sure all the projects are successfully built.
From the command-line, you can now automate #3 by opening a Visual Studio command line prompt (which sets up the environment variables appropriately). Start devenv.exe with appropriate command-line parameters.
I have inherited a Windows Forms application and I have found that a .EXE file gets generated into the obj\Debug folder everytime I compile.
I am more a Web Forms kind of developer so I am a little confused as to what is happening here. Why is it a .EXE and not a .DLL? What does this file actually represent? Is this the default behaviour for Windows Forms applications? Or, did my predecessor have to set it up up somehow?
As far as I can tell, the solution does not have a deployment project.
Their are many types of win application in delhpi. If u create windows form, .exe will be craeted in the debug folder similarly if you are creating Dynamic Link Liberary (DLL) .dll files will b created. These files are created each time when you compile the application.
Why this is a problem? Console application projects have exe file in the obj/Debug folder too. The obj folders are NOT used for running the application - they are used for creating the end binaries in the bin folders.
If the question is about exe vs dll then compiled exe file is used to run the application. In the web environment you used dll because ASP.NET new how to run code from it. But Windows knows how to run exe files, so any of your code actually can be compiled to an executable.
Every application be it web or windows would have an entry-point for execution. Anything in compiled form in .Net is an assembly which need not always be a DLL file. An EXE file is a .Net assembly with an entry point and few headers in the beginning of the file that identifies itself as a stand-alone executable to the windows operating system. In case of your web-application your asp.net pages are the entry points that users would type in a browser and start the application. In case of a stand-alone windows forms desktop application, it is an EXECUTABLE file, which user can click on run.
I am more a Web Forms kind of developer so I am a little confused as to what is happening here. Why is it a .EXE and not a .DLL?
Having said this, It is also important to note that, just like the asp.net is not the only platform to develop web-applications [you have php, jsp, etc.], .Net windows forms is also not the only way to create stand-alone executables. You can make EXEs in C, C++, VB, Delhpi, etc. only difference would be that they will not be .Net assemblies but all of them including .Net executables will have an entry-point to start execution from and the EXE header that identifies them as executables on the host windows operating system.
Why would it be a DLL? It's an application - it has to be launchable, unlike a website which lives "inside" a web server (effectively). The exe file is the application (along with any libraries it requires, of course). You double-click on it, it will launch the application. No problem.
Having said that, you should pretty much ignore the obj directory - it's just an intermediate directory. The bin directory is the one you should be taking build results from.