Programming for Windows with no redistributable

Question

It might be a stupid question, but all of my tries to google this failed. The question is: How can you develop windows applications that don't need a redistributable pre-installed? I want to create applications that run also under older versions of Windows which don't have the .NET Framework or something similar included.

Thank you, eWolf

Answer 1

First, program in a native language, such as C++, no CLR.

Second, disable manifest and avoid linking external DLLs (such as STDC or MFC).

Answer 2

What do you mean by older versions of Windows?
The .net Framework is part of Windows since Windows 2003 and .net 1.1.
So if you are targeting Windows Versions newer than Windows 2003, you can be sure that .net is available.

There are also solutions, that automate linking/packaging of .net products, so that you don't need to ship any redistributables etc.

Update:
I just found out that Mono allows you to link the whole runtime into your executable.
They call that feature Bundle.
Read more about that here.

Answer 3

Use Delphi - although the newer versions of the IDE have some odd bugs, it is easy to create native windows applications that don't need a redistributable. Much easier to use than C++/win32.