How to allow installation in a custom target directory and suppress auto-start

Question

I've developed a VB.NET console application and tried to use the Build | Publish menu option in Visual Studio 2008 to create a Setup. It works fine except two things: - when I run the Setup on a Windows 2003 Server, it installs the application in the C:\Winnt\profiles\\Local Settings\Apps\2.0 directory. How can I configure the setup so that it would prompt for a target directory for the application? - after the Setup is complete, it starts the application automatically. How can I suppress the auto-start?

Answer 1

There are two options to deploy VB.NET applications:

• ClickOnce: This is what you are currently doing with Build | Publish. It always installs into the user's profile directory and it provides very little customization options.

• Windows Installer: This is what you create with File | New | Project | Other Project Types | Setup and Deployment | Setup Project. It allows full customization and installing to Program Files.

  UPDATE: Windows Installer Setup projects have been removed in Visual Studio 2012, but are available as an extension in Visual Studio 2013.

Letting the user choose a target directory is only possible with the latter option.

Related question: How do I dictate the destination folder of a clickOnce application?