Deployment and the Run-Time User Interface

The deployment tools in Visual Studio .NET give you the ability to control the user interface that is presented to a user when your application is installed on a target computer. You can customize the user interface to present information to the user or to gather information from the user.

The User Interface Editor is used to specify and customize the dialog boxes that will be displayed. Each user interface dialog box represents a separate page in the Setup Wizard that is displayed during installation.

A number of predefined dialog boxes are available in the User Interface Editor to handle common scenarios such as introducing the purpose of the wizard (Welcome dialog box), allowing the user to specify an installation directory (Installation Folder dialog box), or showing the progress of an installation (Progress dialog box). In addition, several custom dialog boxes are provided that allow you to present choices or gather information using check boxes, option (radio) buttons, and text boxes. For more information, see Adding and Removing Installation Dialog Boxes in the User Interface Editor.

Each user interface dialog box has properties that can be used to control its appearance, and custom dialog boxes include properties that can be evaluated during installation, using conditions to alter the installation. For more information, see Properties for the User Interface Editor.

See Also

User Interface Management in Deployment | Deployment Dialog Boxes | Customizing Installation Dialog Boxes in the User Interface Editor | Installation Dialog Box Restrictions