Clickonce Windows Installer
- The ClickOnce Bootstrapper package for the.NET Framework 4.5.2 enables the.NET Framework 4.5.2 entry in the list of available prerequisites in Visual Studio 2013.
- AFAIK you can't really use ClickOnce end-to-end to deploy a service; there are issues with both the file locations (ClickOnce installs into a user's profile) and installation (ClickOnce is largely side-effect free).
I need to use Click Once with the Windows Installer but I can't even find Windows Installer on my system. Can someone give me (or point me to a link) on using Windows Installer. It would be great if I can get instructions on using Windows Installer with Click Once. We are running Windows 7 and I need to install an application with some shared dlls.
Any ClickOnce application based on an .exe file can be silently installed and updated by a custom installer. A custom installer can implement custom user experience during installation, including custom dialog boxes for security and maintenance operations. To perform installation operations, the custom installer uses the InPlaceHostingManager class. This walkthrough demonstrates how to create a custom installer that silently installs a ClickOnce application.
Prerequisites
To create a custom ClickOnce application installer
In your ClickOnce application, add references to System.Deployment and System.Windows.Forms.
Add a new class to your application and specify any name. This walkthrough uses the name
MyInstaller
.Add the following
Imports
orusing
statements to the top of your new class.Add the following methods to your class.
These methods call InPlaceHostingManager methods to download the deployment manifest, assert appropriate permissions, ask the user for permission to install, and then download and install the application into the ClickOnce cache. A custom installer can specify that a ClickOnce application is pre-trusted, or can defer the trust decision to the AssertApplicationRequirements method call. This code pre-trusts the application.
Note
Permissions assigned by pre-trusting cannot exceed the permissions of the custom installer code.
To attempt installation from your code, call the
InstallApplication
method. For example, if you named your classMyInstaller
, you might callInstallApplication
in the following way.
Next steps
A ClickOnce application can also add custom update logic, including a custom user interface to show during the update process. For more information, see UpdateCheckInfo. A ClickOnce application can also suppress the standard Start menu entry, shortcut, and Add or Remove Programs entry by using a <customUX>
element. For more information, see <entryPoint> element and ShortcutAppId.