How to run setup (*.exe) file with out using MSI File?

Question

Here I have successfully create setup using visual studio 3.5. On Debug folder in application I found (*.exe and *.msi file).

When I have take both file in same folder then it's work fine. But when I have take only (*.exe) file then it doesn't work.

I need to run (.exe) setup with out using (.msi) file. I required to send only *.exe to client. Is there any way to wrap both file in to single file.

Thanks In advance :)

Answer 1

You have it the wrong way around! The MSI is the important but, the .exe is just a bootstrapper that calls the MSI. If anything you could just distribute the MSI.

See What does the EXE do in the Visual Studio setup project output?

It should be possible to create a bootstrapper that includes the actual MSI as an embedded resource, however I'm not sure how you can do this using Visual Studio.

If I were you I would either just distribute the MSI on its own with the instructions that users must have the .Net framework installed in order for the application to run, or combine up the two in a self-extracting zip (or similar).