Build a stand-alone executable by Visual Studio 2019 Community

Question

I have Visual Studio 2019 Community. I try to create a stand-alone executable out of a .NET Console project. Yet, the .exe I get needs several DLLs from the VS environment. I want to run the EXE on a computer in which VS is not installed., How do I create a true self contained EXE?

Answer 1

Are you using .net framework or .net core?

If it is .net core, please try the following steps:

1. Right-click on the project and select Publish.
2. Choose the location you want to deploy, as an example, I choose the folder, and then next->finish.
   
3. Click Edit, set Deployment Mode to Self-contained, expand File publish options, and select Produce single file.
   

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Answer 2

You can see : .NET Framework deployment guide for developers

Answer 3

If you mean external or 3rd party reference assemblies, you can merge them
https://github.com/dotnet/ILMerge
https://github.com/gluck/il-repack