How can the Wcf Test Client be used without Visual Studio?

Question

When WcfTestClient.exe is copied to another machine by itself, runtime errors prevent you from connecting to a WCF service, for example:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or Assembly 'Microsoft.Build.Utilities.Core, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

How can this tool be used without installing Visual Studio?

Answer 1

To run WCFTestClient.exe as a standalone appplication (without install a full version of Visual Studio 2010):

1. Create a directory in the dest. machine and copy wcftestclient.exe there (only that file).

2. Copy Microsoft.VisualStudio.VirtualTreeGrid.dll (version 10) from file below to same directory of wcftestclient.exe in the dest. machine.

   C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualStudio.VirtualTreeGrid\v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a 

3. You would create in your destination machine the following two registry keys:

   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x64] "InstallationFolder"="\"  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86] "InstallationFolder"="\" 

   Step note: You could export them from your development machine (maybe you could find another version, but please try with v7.0A first).

4. Then you will need copy from:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\svcutil.exe 

   to your destination machine (same directory as wcftestclient.exe)

   Step note: Is important this version of svcutil.exe

5. Run wcftestclient.exe

Final notes: You will need only two .exe files and one .dll (wcftestclient.exe, svcutil.exe and Microsoft.VisualStudio.VirtualTreeGrid.dll) to run the application.

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