Visual Studio 2015 publish not installing on Windows 10 Surface 3

Question

Having completed my project in Visual Studio 2015 community edition, I "published" the project to a cd. I then copied the published directory to a Windows 10 Surface 3. In an elevated cmd prompt (as administrator), I then ran the setup.exe file created with the published project.

The application loads and runs without error. But, when the program is exited, it does not show up in the windows 10 start menu or application list. Furthermore, checking the installed programs shows that the just ran program is not installed.

What am I doing wrong?

I am the administrator on the Surface 3. (Should be noted, that the same visual studio 2015 program was used to create other applications that were successfully published and loaded on windows 10 machines that were not the Surface 3).

TIA for any suggestions on this.

Answer 1

Simple solution -- but took much exploring. Go to the "Publish" tab on the project properties. Under Install Mode and Settings. Check √ The application is available offline as well (launchable from Start menu). Publish with "Publish Now".

Now when the publish directory was copied to the Surface 3 and setup run, the application is correctly listed on the start menu. (I'm sure this is mentioned somewhere else on SO, but I couldn't find it).