Summary

This chapter covered how to use ClickOnce deployment and the functionality of the Windows Installer and how to create Installer packages using Visual Studio 2005. The Windows Installer makes it easy to do standardized installations, uninstalls, and repairs.

ClickOnce is a new technology that makes it easy to install Windows applications without the hassle of needing to be logged on as a system administrator. ClickOnce offers easy deployments as well as updates of client applications.

If more functionality than is available with ClickOnce is needed, the Windows Installer does a good job. The Visual Studio 2005 Installer is restricted in functionality and doesn't possess all the functionality of the Windows Installer, but for many applications the features of the Visual Studio 2005 Installer are more than enough. There are a lot of editors where the generated Windows Installer file can be configured. With the File System Editor, you specify all files and shortcuts; the Launch Conditions Editor can define some mandatory prerequisites; the File Types Editor is used to register file extensions for applications; and the User Interface Editor makes it easy to adapt the dialogs used for the installation.

In this chapter, you learned:

• About the features of and reasons to use ClickOnce deployment

• How to configure ClickOnce deployment for Windows applications

• How to create a setup project with Visual Studio

• How to use the file system, file types, launch condition, and user interface editors of a setup project

In the exercises in this chapter, you have to answer questions about ClickOnce deployment and the Windows Installer.