Re: Sending a finished prorogram to others


"Sally" <me@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:46a3bd9d$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi all. Wold really appreciate someone explaining (or pointing me to a
source) exactly how to make a package out of a vb application. The
references are confusing (to me anyway!). I have made a project which
works well with an exe file, but I understand that sending someone an exe
file isn't the best way. I want to be able to send a friend or two this
app on a CD and have them automatically set it up on their hard disk, and
specify which directories will hold which program and data files for
example, and I don't want the installeee to mess up any of his system
files while attempting to install my application. To confuse things
further, the installee may have XP and he may have Vista!


Two common ways to do this is to use the Package and Deployment Wizard
(PDW), which is part of the VB6 installation. Or use Microsoft's Visual
Studio Installer (MSI), which can be found at the following link:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/Aa718352.aspx

The PDW will create a folder with the needed files and a setup.exe file
which you could burn to CD with an added autorun file to launch the
setup.exe. I would recommend this for your first attempt as it uses a wizard
to walk you through the steps and will provide some insight as to what is
involved.

The MSI is probably a better solution but it is not as intuitive IMO. But,
it tends to create smaller packages with everything in a .msi file.

There are also many others out there. Research the above two to get some
ideas of what else is available. Google is your friend.

As far as XP vs. Vista, I know the above two work with XP but I haven't had
the need to port anything Vista yet so I can't comment.

Oh, and by the way, the installation packages can be modified to include
extra files (database and data files) and EULAs etc...

HTH,

Chris A. Kusmierz



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