What to exclude from a Visual Studio release folder

Question

I have just finished my C# Windows form program and would like to make a zip file of the binary so others can download it. I checked the bin/release folder, and while I can recognize many files which I know will be necessary, but some other files I am not sure if it is safe to exclude them.

The following files are the ones I am not so sure:

• program.pdb
• program.exe.manifest
• program.exe.config
• program.application
• ExternalDLL.xml (related to ExternalDLL.dll which I need to keep, but is the xml important?)

P.S. I am using VS Express so I have to manually deploy my project.

Answer 1

The short answer is: You don't need any of those, with the possible exception of the .config file. If you didn't store any of the app's configuration in its .config file, then you don't need it either. I recommend excluding all of them and trying your app on a different machine. I expect it'll work fine.

The longer answer is: There's probably individual SO questions about each. For example, here's a manifest/application question: C# - do I need manifest files?