Visual Studio Setup Project - Can .net 4 be deployed with project?

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010 to create a setup project for my .NET 4.0 Winforms app.

When the deployed setup is run on a machine that does not have .NET 4.0 runtime installed, the installer downloads and installs the same from MS. That's all good.. it works fine.

However, my app is likely to be installed by users without internet connectivity (laboratory computers often have no connectivity). Therefore, I would like to bundle the .NET 4.0 runtime with my project, and have it installed from the local file rather than downloaded.

Is this possible to still have the installer do the auto check & install using a local bundled file ? And if so, how is it achieved please ?

Appreciatively, Bazza

Answer 1

This MSDN guide should help you - it covers I think nearly all the scenarios - including where you need to package the entire redistributable.

Answer 2

Why not you provide the .NET Framework Stand Alone installer separate from your setup as part of the prerequisites for your software?

I mean, download one of the following versions:

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) - 48 MB

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718

or

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile (Standalone Installer) - 41 MB

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24872

And send 2 installer files to your users. One of those plus your setup.msi. That has the advantage of not making your setup.msi grows that much because it has the other embedded on it.

We used to embed prerequisites software before (like the Crystal Merge Modules) into our setup installer, but we changed for better by providing a separate installer for the user to run it, that way we don't need to maintain that ourselves.