UPD: I found old article that I used a few years ago and followed me step-by-step with deploy using Windows Installer Deploying a VSTO Solution Using Windows Installer. Problem solved
I wrote a custom add-ins menu for Office using Visual Studio Community 2019. Now I'm trying to deploy it. In this article Deploy an Office solution by using Windows Installer they used VS2013 and InstallShield Limited Edition, which doesn't work with VS Community 2019. I installed Advanced Installer but in the Help section "Create a package to deploy an Office Add-In developed in Visual Studio" says "The following article uses options that are available starting with the Professional edition and project type." what means I need to upgrade free version to commercial.
Could you please recommend any other Windows Installer for Office solution for Visual Studio Community 2019? Or any step-by-step article how to deploy solution by using Setup Project in VS Community 2019?
I remember I tried to do some deploy in old version of VS a few years ago, but nowadays it seems more complicated. I just want to try and see if my add-ins work in another computer and then I'll think about commercial versions of VS or Installers
Thanks,
Elena
You can build the package using the free version of Advanced Installer too, but you will have to create all the registry entries (those related to your addin) manually and also the same for adding the files in the package, as documented in the MS article.
The wizard that you mention above does this automatically by reading the necessary info to make the configs from your Visual Studio solution.
Disclaimer: I work on the team building Advanced Installer.
I've installed Visual Studio on my private PC, the version is "Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019", version 16.1.6.
In order to prepare a job interview, I'd like to do some basic MFC/AFX programming, starting by the basic CMapStringToString example from the Microsoft website.
This, however, seems not to work, as I don't have access to the mentioned file afxcoll.h. Indeed: there is no file, called afx*.h on my PC.
Is this a limitation of my free downloaded Visual Studio installation, or is there any add-in, add-on, extension or whatever I can install in order to work with CMapStringToString objects?
Thanks in advance
You need to explicitly install MFC support in Visual Studio - which you can do on Community editions:
Open Visual Studio Installer from your Start Menu
Click the Modify button
Select the Individual Components tab
Scroll down to SDKs, Libraries and frameworks
Check the various MFC/ATL options for various platforms
I asked my organisation to install visual studio premium version.They have installed visual studio 2013 shell integrated.I tried to open a web application it is not loading .
Asked the Installation team they are claiming that shell integrated visual studio is the premium one.
I wanted to know whether visual studio 2013 premium and shell integrated version is the same
The Visual Studio integrated shell is a way to distribute the Visual Studio application with features and customization.
It includes the integrated development environment (IDE), debugger, and source control integration. However, it does not include any programming languages, you must add them as needed, which may be the reason why you can't load your web application.
Regarding the edition I do not know if you can find the edition used to generate the distribution. Keep in mind that some functions may have been removed (or added) in the customization process. In the end you might have to trust them that you are using the 2013 premium edition.
I create a small application and I would like to create one MSI file.
In Visual Studio 2010 you have this project type under:
Other Project Types -> Setup and Deployment -> Visual studio Installer -> Setup Project
But the only thing you got in Visual Studio 2012 is "Enable InstallShield Limited Edition".
You can change the .NET Framework, but nothing changes.
Why is it not there any more? And how can I get it back? Is there a new way to do this?
Please see:
Visual Studio setup projects (vdproj) will not ship with future versions of VS
Windows Installer Deployment
It was announced 1 1/2 years ago that the project types were being killed. Alternatives are:
Use A VS2008/2010 Solution to build your installer
Switch to another tool such as InstallShield or Windows Installer XML
To create setup projects in Visual Studio 2012 with InstallShield Limited Edition, watch this video.
The InstallShield limited edition that cannot install services.
"ISLE is by far the worst installer option and the upgraded, read -
paid for, version is cumbersome to use at best and impossible in most
situations. InnoSetup, Nullsoft, Advanced, WiX, or just about any
other installer is better. If you did a survey you would see that
nobody is using ISLE. I don't know why you guys continue to associate
with InstallShield. It damages your credibility. Any developer worth
half his weight in salt knows ISLE is worthless and when you stand
behind it we have to question Microsoft's judgment."
By Edward Miller (comments in Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension).
The WiX Toolset, which, while powerful is exceeding user-unfriendly and has a steep learning curve. There is even a downloadable template for installing Windows services (ref. VS2012: Installer for Windows services?).
For Visual Studio 2013, see blog post Creating installers with Visual Studio.
Have you tried the "Publish" method? You just right click on the project file in the solution explorer and select "Publish" from the pop-up menu. This creates an installer in a few very simple steps.
You can do more configuration of the installer from the Publish tab in the project properties window.
NB: This method only works for WPF & Windows Forms apps.
Microsoft has listened to the cry for supporting installers (MSI) in Visual Studio and released the Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension. You can now create installers in Visual Studio 2013; download the extension here from the visualstudiogallery.
ISLE (InstallShield Limited Edition) is the "replacement" of the Visual Studio Setup and Deploy project, but many users think Microsoft took wrong step with removing .vdproj support from Visual Studio 2012 (and later ones) and supporting third-party company software.
Many people asked for returning it back (Bring back the basic setup and deployment project type Visual Studio Installer), but Microsoft is deaf to our voices... really sad.
As WiX is really complicated, I think it is worth to try some free installation systems - NSIS or Inno Setup. Both are scriptable and easy to learn - but powerful as original SADP.
I have created a really nice Visual Studio extension for NSIS and Inno Setup with many features (intellisense, syntax highlighting, navigation bars, compilation directly from Visual Studio, etc.). You can try it at www.visual-installer.com (sorry for self promo :)
Download Inno Setup (jrsoftware.org/isdl.php) or NSIS (nsis.sourceforge.net/Download) and install V&I (unsigned-softworks.sk/visual-installer/downloads.html).
All installers are simple Next/Next/Next...
In Visual Studio, select menu File -> New -> Project, choose NSISProject or Inno Setup, and a new project will be created (with full sources).
There is some progress for Visual studio 2013 developers :-D woot woot! See blog post Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension.
Link and information were retrieved from Brian Harry's blog post Creating installers with Visual Studio.
Have a look at the article Visual Studio Installer Deployment. It will surely help you.
You can choose the correct version of .NET framework on the page.
So for you, make it .NET 4.5. I guess that would be there for Visual Studio 2012.
I think that Deploying an Office Solution by Using ClickOnce (MSDN) can be useful.
After creating an Outlook plugin for Office 2010 the problem was to install it on the customer's computer, without using ISLE or other complex tools (or expensive).
The solution was to use the publish instrument of the Visual Studio project, as described in the link. Just two things to be done before the setup will work:
Install the PIA (Primary Interop Assembly) of Office 2010
Install the VSTO 2010 runtime
In my system when I click on Add->new project->And go to Other project types I cant see any project types. I actually wanted to convert my c# project to executable.
Is any component missing during installation? I am using Visual studio 2008 professional edition
Please help me..
I had the same issue until I looked into what software I was ACTUALLY using - check to see if you're really using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - I thought I was until I realized I was using Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) which is different.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) is part of the SQL Server 2008 Management Studio, so the project types available to it are different than MSVS 2008... Microsoft developed the Shell to have the same look and feel of Visual Studio so users were comfortable and familiar with the layout.
Go to Tools>>Import and Export Settings>>Reset all settings>>Choose yes or no to save current settings>>
Then choose Visual C# Development Settings or General Development Settings.
So that you can have templates you need.
You can reopen your VisualStudio ISO and try to repair or you can install VisualStudio Express to make sure you can install all templates.
My guess is you didn't make a full installation and forgot to install some components.