How do I create an installer with only exe and no dependencies in Winforms?

Question

I have seen applications that once installed only have a .exe file in the folder and no dependencies that is (no dll , no xml , no ico ) nothing. I have seen one in a Point of Sale application.

How do I do this using Visual Studio , Winforms and C# ?

Answer 1

To merge dependencies (DLLs and assemblies) you can use Microsoft ILMerge . ILMerge is a utility that merges multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly.

ILMerge takes a set of input assemblies and merges them into one target assembly. The first assembly in the list of input assemblies is the primary assembly. When the primary assembly is an executable, then the target assembly is created as an executable with the same entry point as the primary assembly. Also, if the primary assembly has a strong name, and a .snk file is provided, then the target assembly is re-signed with the specified key so that it also has a strong name.

Example:

    @echo off

:: this script needs https://www.nuget.org/packages/ilmerge

:: set your target executable name (typically [projectname].exe)
SET APP_NAME=myapp.exe

:: Set build, used for directory. Typically Release or Debug
SET ILMERGE_BUILD=Debug

:: Set platform, typically x64
SET ILMERGE_PLATFORM=x64

:: set your NuGet ILMerge Version, this is the number from the package manager install, for example:
:: PM> Install-Package ilmerge -Version 3.0.21
:: to confirm it is installed for a given project, see the packages.config file
SET ILMERGE_VERSION=3.0.21

:: the full ILMerge should be found here:
SET ILMERGE_PATH=%USERPROFILE%\.nuget\packages\ilmerge\%ILMERGE_VERSION%\tools\net452
:: dir "%ILMERGE_PATH%"\ILMerge.exe

echo Merging %APP_NAME% ...

:: add project DLL's starting with replacing the FirstLib with this project's DLL
"%ILMERGE_PATH%"\ILMerge.exe Bin\x64\Release\%APP_NAME%  ^
  /lib:Bin\%ILMERGE_PLATFORM%\%ILMERGE_BUILD%\ ^
  /out:%APP_NAME% ^
  FirstLib.dll ^
  mylib1.dll ^
  Microsoft.lib2.dll ^
  SomeOtherLib.dll ^
  \otherlibdir\otherlib.dll 


:Done
dir %APP_NAME%

If it's hard for you to use ILMerge in command-line or in your build process I suggest ILMerge-Gui tool . It gives you short and simple UI to merge your dependencies as a single exe file.

Please don't forget to read the ILMerge website.

Answer 2

You could use Fody-Costura . It comes as a NuGet package and merges dependecies so that you have one .exe at the end. Worked perfectly for me.