MSI installer with c# WPF VS 2015

Question

I have created a simple wpf application in c# with only one window, MainWindow.xaml. There is no database, not even textboxes, not a single line of code added by myself.

file structure wpf project

I also created an MSI setup project:

setup project

Building of either project works without problem. However, after installation, when I try to run the programme crashes without any error message. All that I see is that the circle-turned cursor is spinning and the windows explorer window can no longer be closed.

Operating system is Windows 10. Anyone has had a similar experience? Looks like a bug in the MSI installer.

Answer 1

Check all the .dll's are included in the installer. Often not all of them are and you need to manually include them. You can compare what's in the install (C:\\Program Files...) directory compared to what's in the project bin directory. Often times items like "PresentationFramework.Aero.dll" aren't included and you get a missing .dll error.

If this is the case, you can copy over some of the .dll's until it works. Then add those to the installer.