How to distribute C# application with installer (installshield)

Question

I have just completed the development of my very first personal project (and real application) and want to distribute it to my users via my website.

I setup the InstallShield via Visual Studio following a guide on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgu0y34HsVM

After doign so i right clicked the installshield project and did an install on my personal PC.

What I want to know is how do I get this installer and distribute it to my users so they can then use it to install the application?

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I followed the video guide i linked for the installshield, but I don't see any debug folder in the folder that was created when I added the installshield project to my application.

http://puu.sh/5DmKS.png this is what i see in my folder containing my project files.

The HC_Updater_Setup folder was created after adding the InstallShield project to the application. http://puu.sh/5DmT4.png is what I see when going into that folder.

inside the next folder is Express > DVD-5 > DiskImages > Disk1 > http://puu.sh/5Dn23.png

would i just zip all this up and distribute it that way?

Answer 1

I would look into ClickOnce deployment. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t71a733d(v=vs.80).aspx

With ClickOnce, you should be able to distribute the app over the web and configure it to automatically check for updates.

Edit:

Also: Create a clickonce webdeploy package

Answer 2

Unless you've changed your project's properties, you can find the installer inside the bin folder of your installer project.

Answer 3

Have you looked at Setup Wizard? This will guarantee that you add all the pre-requisites that your application needs.

You could then add a lite version that doesn't include pre-requisite and a full which includes all of them.

Here's a link to a tutorial I followed when deploying my application. Setup Wizard VS2010

ClickOnce deployment is also a good option if you need your user to look for updates.