Articles → .NET → Create set up of the windows application using visual studio 2010

Create set up of the windows application using

visual studio 2010

In this tutorial I will explain how to create set up of the windows application using visual studio 2010. This topic contains following sections

   1. Software requirement

   2. Technical knowledge

   3. Create a new windows application

   4. Add a set up project in the solution

   5. Modify set up project

   6. Install set up

   7. Output

Software requirement

Before you start reading this tutorial you should make sure that Visual studio 2010 is installed on your machine.

Technical knowledge

In order to understand this tutorial you should have knowledge of following concepts

   1. How to create projects using visual studio?

   2. How to add a new project in a solution using visual studio?

   3. What is the purpose of set up file?

   4. Basics of windows application.

   5. Basics of C#.

Create a new windows application

Create a new windows application and perform following actions

1. Add a button inside the form.

2. Write a code for message popup on button click

Now run the application and you will get a message popup on click of button (See the screen shot below)

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Add a set up project in the solution

Add the project of type ‘Setup Project’ in the existing solution

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Once you click ‘Ok’ the project will be added (see the screen shot below)

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Modify set up project

As you can see in the figure above there are 3 folders

   1. Application folder

   2. User’s desktop – Once the application is installed a short cut gets added on desktop

   3. User’s Program Menu – Once the application is installed a short cut gets added in the start menu.

First of all we will right click on ‘Application Folder’ and click on Add – Project Output as shown in figure below

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A popup appears as shown in figure below. Select ‘Primary output’ and click ok

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Once you click on ‘OK’ you could see the primary output gets added in the ‘Application Folder’

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Once the project out is added, add a short cut icon in the application folder as well. You will come to know about the purpose when we discuss about other 2 folders i.e. ‘User’s Desktop’ and ‘User’s Program Menu’.

For adding an icon, right click on the right hand side window and click on Add – File..

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Once you click on ‘File..’ a window appears to select the icon file. Select any icon file and click on Ok. A short icon will be added as shown in figure below

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Now click on the next folder i.e. ‘User’s Desktop’. Right click on the right hand side window and click on ‘Create New Shortcut’.

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A window appears as shown in figure below

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Click on ‘Application Folder’ and select primary output which we have just added.

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Once you click on ‘OK’ you could see the added short cut

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Rename it

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As mentioned earlier a short cut will be added on the desktop once the application will be installed. We can also give icon to this short cut. For that click on the shortcut and press F4. A property window will appear as shown in figure below

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In the ‘Icon’ property click on the dropdown and click on ‘(Browse..)’

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A window appears as shown in figure below

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Click on ‘Browse..’ and select the shortcut icon which we have added in ‘Application Folder’

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Once you select ‘favicon.ico’ and click on ‘Ok’ you could see the original image

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Click Ok to add it as an icon.

Repeat the same steps for ‘User’s Program Menu’ folder as we have done for ‘User’s Desktop’ folder.

Now build the setup project and ensure there is no error. Once the build has been completed successfully you could see 2 files has been created in the debug folder of the set up project

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Install set up

To install set up double click on the ‘setup.exe’ file a window appears as shown in figure below

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Click on ‘Next’ a window appears as shown in figure below

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Once you click on ‘Next’ the installation will start

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Once the installation is complete click on ‘Close’

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Output

Once the installation is done you could see the icons on desktop as well as on start menu.

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Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Tuesday, August 05, 2014

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