Deployment Via Distributable Media

The deployment tools in Visual Studio .NET can be used to create Windows Installer (.msi) files that can be distributed and installed on other computers. The resulting installer files can be distributed on traditional media such as floppy disks or CD-ROM, or they can be placed on a networked drive for installation across a network.

To deploy an application, you first create a Setup project and set deployment project properties that determine where and how the installer will be built. For deployment via traditional media, you would then copy the .msi file from the build location to a floppy disk or other media. To deploy to a network location, you would create a Web Setup project and add the project output group for the application to the Web Setup project in the File System Editor. After building the installer, you would copy it to the server computer, where it could then be downloaded over the network.

See Also

Deploying Applications and Components | Deployment Projects | Creating or Adding Deployment Projects