Recommendation for DotNet5 Winforms compatible Setup Project for Visual Studio 2019

JD N 1 Reputation point
2021-04-23T19:19:29.58+00:00

After discovering yesterday that the Setup Project included with VS2019 does not work with DotNet5 (the Primary Output for a DotNet 5 Winforms application is just a dll making it useless & requiring kludging to make it work on Windows so the average user doesn't need to get involved in something as mundane as software installation), I was wondering, instead of spending another week rolling my own setup project, if there is a DotNet5 compatible alternative (open source preferred, or an affordable 3rd party option) available?

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  1. Ken Tucker 5,846 Reputation points
    2021-04-25T10:51:56.037+00:00

    You can build your .net 5 windows forms app into a self-contained exe.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/single-file

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  2. Anna Xiu-MSFT 26,146 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2021-04-26T09:16:04.837+00:00

    Hi @JD N ,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

    You could also refer to the following document:
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/deployment/installer-projects-net-core?view=vs-2019#workflow-changes-for-net-core-31

    Please select ‘Publish Items’ to get setup.exe file for your Winforms project.

    Sincerely,
    Anna

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