Visual Studio: Build Setup Project that does not require .Net Framework - winforms

Lately I have made a windows forms Project in VS 2010. Then I built it in VS 2005 Setup Project. Before installation my software requires .Net Framework to be installed. Most of my users don't want this, instead they just want to download the software and install, just like they download Skype, IM, etc.
I can add Framework in installation folder, but then it's size would be too large and that's inconvenient for users again.
Is there any way to build my Project, that will NOT require .Net Framework installation?

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Is "Click Once" supported for .Net Core WPF?

What is the correct pattern/ what packages to use for WPF click once deployment in .net core 3.0( earlier versions are okay too)?
I am currently migrating a WPF app from netframework 4.8 to .net core 3.0. I have been using click once deployment in in the previous version. I was using System.Deployment package which is not supported in .net core. Is there any substitution for the package and what is the correct way to implement click once deployment in .net core and is it even possible? Should it be done using MSIX, if so is there any good guide about MSIX click once deployment?
Support for ClickOnce is now available in .NET Core 3.1 and higher (you need Visual Studio 2019).
Source Microsoft Docs:
Starting in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8, you can use the Publish tool to publish .NET Core 3.1, or newer, Windows Desktop applications using ClickOnce from Visual Studio

How can I create ClickOnce application installer which will install prerequisite software packages along with my application setup

I am creating ClickOnce application setup by publishing it with visual studio 2013.
But the problem is my application needs silverlight to be preinstalled on client machine to make my application work.
So I want to create the installer which will automatically install silverlight with my ClickOnce application installation.

Windows Installer 4.5 Doesn't appear in the prerequisites component list

From Prerequisites on the setup property pages, I selected the option to Download prerequisites from the component vendor's web site
There is no Windows Installer 4.5 in the prerequisites to install option..
because every im installing my setup using the sqlexpr_x64_ENU.exe in custom actions to install, run the setup after the extracting sqlserver it pops up the window says
There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. Aprogram run as part of the setup did not finnish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor
im using VS2017 on windows 10
Exclude MSI Engine: You should not include Windows Installer 4.5 with any package these days. This runtime is from back in the day of Windows Vista - we are long since on version 5. Windows Installer should be deployed only via Windows Update as of today - in my opinion. Leave the runtime out of your setup.
No Concurrency: You can not run an MSI setup from within another MSI setup via a custom action. This is due to technical restrictions. There is a mutex set when an MSI runs its actual installation sequence, and triggering another installation sequence from within it will fail. A similar answer on the topic.
Setup.exe Launcher: What you need is to install your pre-requisites via a setup.exe launcher instead. This runs installations in serial, not in parallel. Which version of SQL Server are you installing? I see only a couple of versions available in the Visual Studio Installer Project launcher.
Other tools have features to allow you to install a setup.exe with embedded packages of various kinds in sequence. I have explained a myriad of times how to do this in previous answers. Here are just a few that I found quickly:
SQL Server named instance with Visual Studio 2017 Installer project (basically exactly the same issue - I suggest WiX the open source, free alternative)
Custom installer for application in Visual Studio 2017 (I suggest WiX and several commercial tools that are easier to use - maybe try to read this one)
Cannot call command.exe(SQL Server Setup.exe) while calling C# CA with parameters
How to create a MSI file which simply copies a directory to Program Files? (tools list)
Combine exe and msi file in one installer
Visual Studio 2017 Installer Project - include VC++ 2015 Redistributable
The general situation:
The problem is not Windows Installer 4.5, it's the fact that you are trying to do a recursive MSI install (the SQL one from inside yours) which is not allowed and will fail.
The MSI 4.5 engine is pretty much obsolete, about 10 years old, and anyway it's not the issue, and it's not clear why you believe it is. But it IS in the Prerequisite list on my VS 2017 setup project prerequisites - see 3 - even though you almost certainly don't need it.
There are some SQL Express options available in the Prerequisites of the VS setup project - right click the project in solution explorer and choose Properties, then Prerequisites.

Report Viewer 14.0 redistributable

Previous versions of the Microsoft Report Viewer technology for Windows Forms had a runtime file you could install on a client PC to setup the Microsoft Report Viewer assemblies on the users machine. Does something like this exist for Report Viewer version 14.0 used by Visual Studio 2017? I can't seem to find anything available on the Internet.
Viewer 14 on VS 2017 is quite nice in that all you need is the nuget package and you have everything you need to run reports. It doesn't require an installation package to run on the target machines.
This makes web applications a lot easier to deploy as you don't have to install anything on the server short of the website itself. And for winforms you just need to include the dll files the nuget package added.

Deploy Windows Form Entity Framework 6 App

I have been working on a project to create a Windows Form Application, using .NET 4.5, C#, and Entity Framework 6, in Visual Studio 2012. I was hoping to build a single EXE file to run the whole program, but I need the references to both DLLs for EntityFramework and EntityFramework.SqlServer.
I know that I could create an installation project and package the DLLs with the EXE, but for the company I work for that does not appear to be an option. I will more than likely have to find a way to install the DLLs separately so that they will be available when the EXE is sent to the users that need access to it.
Does anybody have any advise or experience on how you deployed your applications that required the use of the DLLs for EntityFramework and EntityFramework.SqlServer?

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