Hi

When we create a windows application, deployment is one of the most important issues with it. In dot net deploying a windows application is a very easy task. We can use the one click deployment while the application is in the development phase. But when we need to send the application to the user, the one click deployment is not useful.

We can use the visual Studio’s set-up project to easily create a professional deployment package. I this article I will show how can we create a simple deployment package.

For this purpose we first create a project. The project has only one windows form, which has a button. When you click the button the Application show the current time.

Next we add a set up project in the solution. For doing this right click on the Solution and go to Add->New Project. In the Other project Types -> Setup and deployment, we choose the Setup project.  Name the project to appropriate project name.

By default we will have the File system tab opened. Now we will add the project output to this setup. To do this Select the Application folder and choose Action -> Add -> project output. This will show the “Add Project dialog Group” dialog box.

In the project Dropdown list choose the correct project and choose the primary output from the list provided. Click on the Ok button and you will see some files added to the Application Folder. This is all you need to create the deployment package.

You can do many more things here. Like if we want to add shortcut of the application to the Desktop. Select the Primary output and use Action -> create shortcut of the… to create a shortcut of the primary out put. Now drag this to the User desktop folder to add a shortcut to the user’s desktop. To add an item in the start menu create one more shortcut and ad it to the User’s Program menu. You can also create a folder here and then add the shortcut to the start menu. You can also add the icons to the short cut by using the Icon property.

Hope this helps
Thanks
Vikram