How do you publish or deploy your C# desktop application?

Question

I just finished my simple C# desktop application. What I want to provide to my customer is an installer of the application(.exe). Also, I want the app to check for updates if ever I will do some updates without giving my customer the installer again.

I have read about the "ClickOnce" but I find it confusing especially the FTP part. Do I need to have an FTP server to upload the application files? Aside from that, most of the tutorials are deploying in the local machine (I guess).

Please advise me on this one.

Answer 1

You can use a tool like Advanced Installer . It is free and easy to use. But if you want to do automatic updates you can purchase a license for the professional version.

Answer 2

A direct quotation from MS documentation:

To specify a publishing location

1. With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu, click Properties.

2. Click the Publish tab.

3. In the Publish Location field, enter the publishing location by using one of the > following formats:

   • To publish to a file share or disk path, enter the path by using either a UNC path (\\Server\ApplicationName) or a file path (C:\Deploy\ApplicationName).

   • To publish to an FTP server, enter the path using the format ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/ .

Note that text must be present in the Publishing Location box in order for the Browse (...) button to work.

For more information please check the following link .

Long story short, you can just use a publicly accessible file share on the intranet. Using an FTP server is just an alternative.