Run a .NET app on a machine without .NET by including DLLS????

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I am working on a program that will be distributed on a USB stick (thumbdrive, flashdrive, whatever they're called these days). It's a critical application and must be up and running within 2 minutes of putting the drive in the machine. Unfortunately, the 2 minute requirement didn't get to me until late (yeah, I know.... but let's talk about the programming, not the project management ;-) ).

I timed the installation of .NET 2.0 in a virtual machine today and it took about 8-10 minutes for it to install. My client's not gonna go for that. So I'm wondering if I can just copy all the DLLs that are referenced in my program to the ouput location and distribute those with the application? If not, is there some way I can build a .NET installer that installs only the stuff I've actually used?

I was watching the .NET installation and there's a lot of stuff in there that I just don't use in my program. Any hints you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Posted 20-May-09 8:26am

Hypermommy

Updated 19-Dec-10 5:42am

Sandeep Mewara

v2

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9 solutions

Solution 3

Hmm, I like what others have posted, but here are some other options you may want to consider:

Mono is an open source and cross platform implementation of .Net. Mind you, though, that it doesn't have everything .Net has, such as WPF. It also has a bunch of bugs (or did last time I looked at it). I think you can compile your project with .Net and then use it on a computer that has Mono installed. You might look into installation times for Mono to see if they are any better than Microsoft's .Net Framework install times.
There is something called the ".Net Compact Framework". It is a subset of the bigger .Net Framework, and so is smaller (i.e., it would have a shorter install time). If you only need the functionality provided by the .Net Compact Framework, then maybe you can use that instead. Not sure how to make the client computer install it though. Maybe you can set all your projects (in Visual Studio project settings) to use .Net CF? I'm not sure of the details, but that is at least one option you can look into.

Posted 17-Nov-09 13:27pm

AspDotNetDev

Solution 4

I believe Remotesoft Salamander[^] will do what you're asking. A warning though, it's pretty expensive at $1249 US.

Posted 11-Dec-09 11:39am

Kythen

Solution 5

You could consider using the .net client profile. It's a slimmed down version of the .net framework that comes with most of the general stuff of client apps, but none of the server stuff (like asp.net). I haven't timed it, but I presume it would install quicker.

Unfortunately 3.5 client profile is pretty rubbish and comes with a load of caveats. (Like you have to use the web installer, and it will default back to the full fat version if it detects any other .net on the PC already, and is for 32bit OSes only).

If you can hang on until 4.0, the 4.0 client profile looks to be much better. It will have a re-distributable download, and won't fall back to the full thing. Check out the table titled "Enhancement in 4.0 Client Profile vs. 3.5 SP1 Client profile:" in this blog post[^].

(For more info on the 3.5 client profile deployment - see here[^])

Posted 12-Jan-10 2:35am

Simon P Stevens

Updated 12-Jan-10 2:37am

v2

Solution 6

You could try to use the CrossNet[^] compiler. To quote from their site;

It parses .NET assemblies and generates unmanaged C++ code that can be compiled on any standard C++ compiler.

Posted 2-Feb-10 23:01pm

Eddy Vluggen

Solution 7

Use NET Compact Framework
The .NET Compact Framework constitutes the environment in which managed applications run on devices. It provides access to the underlying features of the device.

Posted 5-Feb-10 17:25pm

keyur soni

Solution 8

I know the post is very earlier, but just want to share that, you can use the .Net Framework Client Profile option. It may help you.

Posted 11-May-10 22:50pm

Kunal Chowdhury «IN»

Solution 9

I suspect it would be possible, but it is most likely MS will have done several things to stop people from simply doing this.

Posted 19-Dec-10 4:48am

LloydA111

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Moreno Airoldi · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-20T10:05:00

I don't think it can be done. Even if you copy all the registry settings and files and manage to register it all in a new machine in a small time, you still risk having something which won't work properly, and the cost of keeping this "custom installer" updated would be big.

The best way to get that result is not using .NET (or any similar framework), so you can build a standalone executable and have it up and running in seconds. However, since I guess your app is already developed and it would be too expensive to re-build it from scratch, the other options might be using a virtual machine. You can set up a virtual machine with the operating system, .NET and your app installed and configured.

But still you would have to install vmware - unless you demand it to be installed on all machines before you setup your app. But in this case, you can simply demand that .NET is installed prior to using your app, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think this is the best way to solve your problem without dropping .NET. Good luck. :)

Pete O'Hanlon · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-20T11:36:00

Solution 2

You might want to look into an option where the framework elements you need are compiled into your application. These are generally fairly expensive though, but they might be just what you want. Take a look at things like Thinstall[^] or Xenocode[^].

Posted 20-May-09 11:36am

Pete O'Hanlon

Updated 19-Dec-10 5:45am

v2

Comments

Sandeep Mewara 19-Dec-10 11:46am

There was some UI alignment issue because of some recent change in CP. Modified the answer to correct the UI.

Pete O'Hanlon 19-Dec-10 14:58pm

Thanks Sandeep.

Run a .NET app on a machine without .NET by including DLLS????

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Run a .NET app on a machine without .NET by including DLLS????

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