Deployment Tools

The Visual Studio .NET development platform has the new Setup and Deployment project category, which includes templates that may be used to create installation packages for many types of applications. These packages are based on the Microsoft Windows Installer technology, which handles many of the setup and configuration details automatically. When you decide to deploy a package, its complexity and installation requirements will determine the best tool for deployment.

A simple .NET application that uses managed code and private assemblies may be deployed using nothing more than the XCOPY utility, which duplicates the application's files to the desired destination. However, this type of installation is insufficient when an application involves key management, user registration, feature selection, relative path selection, Global Assembly Cache (GAC) manipulation, or the creation of shortcuts, databases, or a branded interface. An XCOPY installation is "all or nothing"the user can't select which components to install.

In order to handle more complex installation requirements, you can use the Windows Installer technology. Installer packages (files ending with the .msi extension) can be used to create shortcuts, set Registry entries, add Start menu items, execute custom scripts, and allow per-feature and on-demand installations. In addition, the Windows Installer creates a file detailing all the actions taken during an installation. If anything goes wrong during the installation, this file contains the information that the Windows Installer needs to roll back the computer to its original state. The file is also used to determine which components to delete if the user later chooses to remove the software entirely.

Visual Studio .NET ships with version 2.0 of Windows Installer, which is compatible with Windows NT 4 (Service Pack 6), Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Microsoft provides a downloadable earlier version that can be used on Windows NT 4, Windows 95, and Windows 98.