I am required to create a simple application. Since I am good at WPF and I don't know win forms that good I implemented my application by creating a .Net Framework 4.0 WPF project in Visual Studio. Everything works great the application runs like it is supposed to.
Since the application is required to run in multiple platforms (Windows XP and above) I am including the prerequisites when publishing my applications. The prerequisites happen to be:
1) WIC (Windows Imaging Component) old computers need that to run the .net framework 4.0
2) Windows installer 3.1 (needed in order to install the next prerequisite)
3) Windows .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile
If I install those prerequisites then the application runs like it is supposed to.
Now the problem is:
My boss did not approve my application because he tried installing it in a Windows XP machine with SP2 and this are the things that happened:
Step 1)
// first prerequisite (WIC) took less than 1 minute to install everything
// is working great so far.
Step 2)
// second prerequisite (Windows Installer 3.1) takes about 2 minutes to install
// which is great. After the installation is done the computer needs to be
// restarted in order to continue with the installation. Things are not going
// that good now but we are still ok...
Step 3)
// After the computer is done rebooting it continues with the last prerequisite
// (Windows .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile). That takes 10 minutes to install!!!!
Step 4)
// My application has all the prerequisites needed to be installed so it installs in
// about 1 minute
We recorded the time, and the application took about 25 minutes to install from start to finish. The computer where we tested the installation was a virtual computer using 2 cores and 1 GB of memory with 3.1 GHZ.
What do you guys recommend in order to speed up this installation? Should I use a different technology such as windows forms using .net 2.0? It will be nice if I can deploy the application that I have already created. If you guys could help me make this application portable I will really appreciate it. In order to do so I tried building my application with all the required references copied to the output directory. That did not work... Or any ideas of how to make the installation be faster will be of great help as well.
If you're using .NET Framework 4.0 (which is not going to come out-of-the-box with any versions of Windows, especially Windows XP) there's no way to get around the install of .NET 4.0 on the target machine. Your major bottleneck is going to be the download of .NET 4.0 files from Microsoft to the machine.
I've run into similar problems where the initial install of an application takes forever because of the .NET 4.0 download and install. We even encountered an issue where the application couldn't be install because there was insufficient disk space for the download.
One option would be to pre-push the prereqs out to all the machines you'll be install this on before deploying your application.
Otherwise, you might be forced to use an older version of the .NET framework. Here's a list of the framework versions which shipped with various versions of windows.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2007/03/14/mailbag-what-version-of-the-net-framework-is-included-in-what-version-of-the-os.aspx
Unfortunately, if your organization is committed to using a 10 year old operating system then they either need to accept that modern tools will require a lengthy install process while all prereqs are loaded... or else force you to use a 10 year old software technolgy.
Related
I have written an application that I deploy via Clickonce, but I want to deploy it via Installshield, so I am experimenting with it. I found and downloaded dotnetfx45_full_x86_x64.exe, the redistributable for .NET Framework 4.5, and made a Installshield prerequisite from it. I wrote a simple application that has a RDLC report that just says “Hello World”, and it needs .NET Framework 4.5, and used Installshield to deploy it. The Reportviewer needs Microsoft SQLClrTypes_x86.msi and SQLClrTypes_x64.msi, and ReportViewer.msi, so I got those and made Installshield prerequisites from them. For the ReportViewer.prq, I specified SQLClrTypes_x86.prq and SQLClrTypes_x64.prq, as dependencies, and for SQLClrTypes_x86.prq and SQLClrTypes_x64.prq I specified dotnetfx45_full_x86_x64.prq as a dependency.
When I installed my little application on my test computer (running Windows 7), it installed the 4.5 framework, said it needed to reboot, and asked if I wanted to reboot now, and I clicked Yes. I was thinking it would reboot and continue the installation, but when it rebooted, that was the end of the installation. I ran setup again, it asked if I wanted to install the 4.5 Framework (it asked me the first time, too), so I clicked No. After clicking No, it installed the rest of my program, and it ran perfectly.
How can I get the installation to continue after it reboots from installing the .NET Framework 4.5?
Thanks
Here's a blog I wrote about 9 years ago:
Using InstallShield 12 to Install .NET Framework 3.0
It hasn't changed much. You want to use the prereq editor to change the reboot behavior to Note it, fail to resume if the machine is rebooted, and reboot after the installation.
Also please note that InstallShield consumes it's PRQ files from the ISProductFolder (C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield.... ) I don't care for this from a CM perspective. I recommend isolating the file and file references to relative paths based on ISProjectFolder and keeping all of these files in your source control tool.
Behavior Tab
I built a .Net 2.0 Application for Windows XP but I made it in Windows 7.
The application contains a Mysql.data connection and CrystalReport. When I try to run it on Windows XP, the application does not run, giving an error message of:
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000007b).
I tried to rebuild application in Windows XP, but when I rebuilt and ran it in Visual Studio, the following error occurs:
Could not load file or assembly or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.
How can I fix this?
Please try the following:
1.Uninstall the .NET Framework 3.5 from Add/Remove Programs (in the Control Panel) on Windows XP or Programs and Features on Windows Vista/Windows 7.
Even if the uninstall fails, go on to step 2.
2.After the Framework 3.5 has been uninstalled or if it failed, download and run the .NET Framework removal tool.
Here's the link to Aaron Stebner's Framework Removal tool on Windows Live Skydrive:
http://cid-27e6a35d1a492af7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog_Tools/dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=17797669
Aaron Stebner is a Microsoft employee. The tool he's developed is linked on that page and makes easy work of cleaning up damaged .NET Frameworks from your system so they can be reinstalled. When you run the tool, choose the .NET Framework 3.5 from the list and choose to cleanup. After this is done, reinstall the .NET Framework 3.5 that Design 3 needs by running the Expression Design 3 setup package again. It will detect that the .NET Framework 3.5 is missing and reinstall it for you. After that's done, try running Design 3 again.
3.If that still fails to resolve the problem, go to START, RUN and type CMD to run a command prompt. Type CHKDSK /R and hit ENTER. Hit the letter Y and restart the machine. Allow the machine to do the check disk scan. After this is done and it goes back into Windows, try Expression Design again.
more information here
I am rolling out a WPF application which uses Entity Framework but also has MySqlConnection connections.
On Windows 7 the rollout is fine with just .net 4 installed, but on SOME older hardware running XP I have run into difficulties.
The symptoms are varied.
I install the driver and Entity Framework operations are successful but MySqlCommands fail - the event viewer either (depending on which machine) shows a FileNotFound Exception or it shows an exception relating to the .NET 2 optimiser.
I install the driver and nothing works - the error is that the driver failed to load.
I attempt to load the driver but the install complains that either .net 4 or .net 2 needs to be installed even though .net 4 is present.
One XP workstation out of the half dozen or so I have tried worked perfectly first time - what I noticed on this machine was that .net versions 1.1, 2.0, 3.5 and 4 were all present before I performed the MySql connector installation.
I am going to try uninstalling .net 4, reinstall .net 2 and then install the MySql connectors to see if that resolves the problem, but if I am honest I am hacking away at this without really knowing what the underlying issue is.
Can anyone enlighten me ?
What we found was that those workstations that had .NET 4 'Extended' preinstalled, and those that had a full 2, 3.5, 4.0 history of .NET preinstalled worked without a problem.
The workstations that only had .NET 4 'Client Profile' installed were not supported by, or did not support, the MySqlConnector. We found this to be true for a number of different MySqlConnector versions.
I am currently using the Visual Studio 2010 Setup Project to deploy my application to an MSI installer file, which includes a Windows Service and a Windows Forms application. But I am disappointed with the performance and compatibility of this form of packaging.
My application is compatible with Windows XP and upwards, but several older XP user-testing boxes simply don't have the right version of the Windows Installer or the necessary service pack installed. (Un)installation can take dreadfully long for a program under 1MB in size and many systems do not support it. InstallState errors can crop up and ruin the (un)installation if the service has been deleted or already installed, or if any program files are missing (for uninstall).
What I need from an (un)installer:
Manage .NET dependencies.
Copy/remove my application files to a folder.
Add/remove menu and shortcuts to the desktop and Start menu.
(Un)install a Windows service, though I can also do this from my application. The stop and uninstall part is important.
Run my application when it's done.
This question's answers recommend NSIS (which I have used with good results) and WiX. Ironically there is no easy link to simple installer for WiX on their website.
Am I missing something with VS2010's setup project? It is optimized for speed, but it's just too slow.
You should run the installer/uninstaller explicitly with
msiexec /x thefile.msi /l*v thefile.log
(/i for install). Then inspect the log file; it will have time stamps telling you what action took what amount of time. Of course, the logging will affect that, but you should get an idea what makes it take so long.
For .net 3.5 SP1, Microsoft have the new client profile which installs only a subset of .net 3.5 SP1 on to Windows XP user's machines.
I'm aware of how to make my assemblies client-profile ready. And I've read the articles on how to implement an installer for ClickOnce or MSI.
But I've been using Inno Setup for my project so far and I'd like to continue to use it (as an Express user, I can't easily make MSIs), I need to know how to use the client-profile installer in a custom environment.
There is an article on a Deployment.xml schema, but no indication of how to write one, package it or anything else. Can someone explain this process? Finding the articles I linked to alone was a painful search experience.
Microsoft has now shipped the Client Profile Configuration Designer (Beta).
This designer lets you edit the XML files with some limitations, this isn't a 'Google beta' by any means.
Information and download
Can you clarify: Are you trying to write an installer for your app, which depends on the Client-Profile, or are you trying to write a custom installer for the client-profile?
I haven't used it personally, but if it's anything like the dotnetfx 1 and 2 msi's, you basically have to just invoke it's executable yourself from your own .exe file, or from an Msi BEFORE the InstallExecuteSequence starts up - you can't "embed" those in your own app, MS go out of their way to tell you not to do that due to suckage of MSI.
Client profile works only on clean XP. If your user as .Net 1 or 2 installed, client profile wont install...
You have an offline version (integrating Full .Net3.5 Install in case Client Wont install) 200 to 300Mo don't remember
Online version will get required files.
You can call a silent install from the first steps of your install.