I'm trying to develop a .NET 7 app for the Microsoft Store. With Framework 4.8 I was able to create my app with just over 100MB for the final installed program size. Now, with .NET 7, the installed program size is 450 MB. It seems to be including a lot of unnecessary files. I use some DevExpress controls, and it's including every single DevExpress dll, at least 100MB of unneeded files there. It includes the 20MB SDK for .NET 6. Is that really necessary? Can my app be slimmed down? I know disk space is cheaper and more abundant than ever, but there are plenty of cheap computers with tiny hard drives that can't afford to dedicate a half a gigabyte of wasted space.
If I was creating a ClickOnce app, I'd know how to exclude files, but the Store publisher packs everything inside a single file (over a gigabyte, since I have to check each cpu to target individually rather than AnyCPU). But how do I do that with the Store publishing wizard? I seem to recall that there might be some way to associate a publishing profile with the Store publisher, but I can't find anything about that now. I know .NET 7 comes with options to publish an app either self-contained or framework dependent, and that can make a 100MB difference in file size, but I don't know how to (or even if it's possible to) publish a lightweight framework dependent version to the Store. The wizard doesn't ask you if you want it framework dependent.
I use a packaging project, and when I added the reference to my application project, I can see in the solution explorer that it imported references to all the DevExpress components (including many that I don't need), but I can't right-click them and tell VS to exclude them or delete them or anything. Is the packaging project getting that list from somewhere that I would be able to edit? Is there any way to put this thing on a diet and slim down the file count?