Deploy app, C++, Visual Studio 2015 community version

Question

I'm trying to deploy a C++ app for use on multiple systems. I've already gotten everything to work in the release configuration. Now since i don't have any experience with deploys at all, i'd like to ask - what's the simplest way to deploy it from Visual Studio 2015 community, so that it could be installed as a portable app on flash drives and similar? I've checked out google, but with no luck so far all of the solutions i checked require some sort of additional software that is only available for the pro version of VS.

Answer 1

The simplest possible answer would be: compile without dependency on VC++ runtime libraries (select this in the project properties -> C++ -> code generation) and choose the oldest Windows version it should run on (in project properties -> general). Maybe even select Windows XP compatibility.

This should be enough, unless your program depends on other libraries or optional Windows features that may be not present.

And test a lot :)

-- dd

Answer 2

You should be able to go to your project's Properties (right click on your project) then under C/C++ and Code Generation switch your Runtime Library from Multi-threaded DLL (/MD) to Multi-threaded (/MT) .

This way your dependencies to the runtime library will be statically linked and not require you to have any of them installed at the target system.