I'm using the Visual Studio Setup project. If I go to the properties of the Setup project, it lets me choose which pre-reqs are required, at which point I choose the C++ Redistributable.
On some systems, this works fine - but recently my users are reporting that the install failed because "A newer version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable has been detected on the machine."
What's the proper way to do this? Is Visual Studio's detection fouled up somehow and unable to detect C++?
Yuck, this is ugly. I was wondering what would happen after Microsoft gave up on the side-by-side install of the runtime DLLs for VS2010. Seems clear, the interwebs are full of this installer error. The biggest victim seems to be Microsoft itself with Streets and Maps failing to install.
I'm not aware of any security patches for it so I have to guess that you haven't updated to SP1 yet. And your customers use a product of a vendor that did. This is a battle that you're always going to lose some day. Do consider taking advantage of the app-local deployment for the DLLs, copying them in the same directory as your main EXE. Simply copy them from the vc/redist directory before putting the setup package together, no need to tick the prerequisite. You'll need:
msvcr100.dll and msvcp100.dll for the regular CRT
atl100.dll if you use ATL
mfc100.dll, mfc100u.dll, mfcm100.dll, mfc100u.dll if you use MFC (u = Unicode, m = managed)
mfc100xxx.dll where xxx is the 3 letter language code if you use MFC on a non-English machine
vcomp100.dll if you use OpenMP in your code.
Only disadvantage is that they won't get updated if there's a security patch. That could be an advantage too, depending on what color glasses you wear. If you're uncomfortable about it then keeping the machine that creates the setup package updated, including enabling Windows Update, is an important requirement.
The default Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable uses a Product Code for detection. So Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable is not detected as installed. This is why the package tries to install it and fails.
A good solution is to create your own custom prerequisite which uses a better detection criteria. Here is an article which may help you:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2010/05/05/10008146.aspx
Visual Studio setup projects do not support custom prerequisite creation. However, it can be done by manually generating the required manifests.
You can find the manifests structure here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229223(VS.80).aspx
These manifests can be generated automatically with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator tool.
After generating the package manifests, you can add all these files (including the package) in a separate folder in the Visual Studio prerequisites folder, for example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\
This way Visual Studio will show the prerequisite in your setup project properties page.
Related
I have a fairly large project in Visual Studio 2010
I can build the project in both Debug and Release mode, copy the generated exe file along with a custom dll I need for a function in the program to another computer, and the exe file works without any problems
I am trying to make an installer for this project in Visual Studio 2010, following the instructions here: https://www.technical-recipes.com/2011/how-to-create-an-installer-in-microsoft-visual-studio/
I do not get any errors while building the installer, and I get a setup.exe and an msi file as a result, but if I install my program in another computer (not by development machine), when I try to run my program after installation I get a missing api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll error
How do I debug this problem? Since I can simply copy my Release or Debug build to the computer and make it work, doesn't it mean all the dll files my program is dependent on already exists in the other computer? And if this already works, why isn't the installer version working? How do I make sure that everything I need for this program is included in the installer?
My project in MFC dialog based and uses one third party library, for which I have both .lib and .dll file available. I need to do this in Visual Studio 2010. My development machine is Windows 10 64 bit Home edition version 1909. The installer I currently create installs my program in Program Files (x86) folder.
Static Linking MFC: It appears this issue was solved by making sure to statically link to MFC libraries. In the VC++ project: enable the setting: "include MFC in a static library". This enables static linking of MFC components, eliminating the dependency on shared dlls.
This is a common "missing runtime error" - there are generic check lists below which include this as one source for application launch problems.
Warning: Generally static linking should be avoided in order to benefit from security updates to shared dll files via other update mechanisms.
Short Version: In Visual Studio Installer Projects, check if the Visual C++ Runtime is available in the Prerequisites list.
See this answer, here is a quick screen shot:
Tools: If your project is large you might want to consider another MSI tool. There are many limitations with Visual Studio Installer Projects.
Merge Modules: There are merge modules to install the Visual Studio C++ Runtime, but it is recommended to use the setup.exe for these reasons.
Visual C/C++ Runtime: You are probably just missing the Visual Studio C/C++ Runtime. It needs to be deployed with your application, it is not on there by default (unless you link statically, in which case it should not be needed). Skim this list quickly for other ideas.
You can download the VC++ redistributables at ("The latest supported Visual C++ downloads"):
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2977003
More Information:
More on the Visual C/C++ Runtime
Secondary Links:
Detecting presence of Visual C/C++ runtime on box
Missing Dependencies and check lists
Scan for application dependencies
Installing VC++ Runtime with merge modules
The reason I ask is I want a small installation size and I only use the product for writing code for school work. I will not need 3rd party software, web capability, or integration with other software and applications.
In a comment now you requested for "command line to run the web installer in a certain predefined way say only download and install visual studio core editor and.net components". BTW, the recommendation including installing .NET components was a part of my original answer- now I splitted the answers, one for minimal install and this one for what you requested secondly, including .NET Visual Studio components:
The command line to install core and .net minimal is:
vs_xxxx.exe --layout %CD%\vs2017offline --lang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop
(set your individual downloaded .exe name for 'vs_xxxx.exe', my downloaded name was for example 'vs_enterprise__873301792.1489161815.exe')
The new installer for Visual Studio gives you a lot of flexibility about which components to install. By default, you'll have no additional features selected. VS will only install what it calls the Visual Studio core editor, which is described as:
The Visual Studio core shell experience including syntax-aware code editing, source code control and work item management.
With this, you'll get support for TextMate language grammars (you can install any you want), but you won't have the overhead of installing any language services or project types. So far, VS is a glorified editor; this minimal install will take 600MB. If you're looking for something smaller, you should probably consider Visual Studio Code instead.
Workloads
The first tab of the new VS installer is the Workloads section. This gives you some pre-packaged feature groups targeted at specific development platforms. There are separate categories of workloads (Windows, Web, Gaming, and Other) and taking the Windows category for example, there are 3 different workloads available: UWP, .NET Desktop (like WinForms and WPF), and C++ Desktop development.
Each workload has required and optional features. Some of the optional features will be selected by default as they are "recommended". You can slim down by unselecting these.
If the workloads are too heavy-handed for you, you can use...
Individual components
On this tab, you can piece together any single components you want. If a workload seems too large, you can see what components it would install, then go to this tab and pick the smaller set you would like.
Note that some components do have dependencies (sometimes numerous), and the installer will show you all of the dependent packages added. If you try to remove them, it will notify you of dependent components that will also be removed.
You have the following alternatives:
1.
Minimal Visual Studio: Start the standard Visual Studio web installer, and select nothing, then you get the minimal installation for only the development environment (IDE), especially editor.
2.
If this is too big for you, you can use something similar to Visual Studio, for example, you can Visual Studio Code editor or you can use SharpDevelop as an alternative to Visual Studio. Open Source and smaller footprint.
You can work with every editor on the commandline using "csc.exe myhomework.cs" (CSharp compiler).
3.
The solution with smallest footprint (without Visual Studio):
Just use the editor you are used to, even notepad is possible: Depending on your .NET version and Windows directory, the compiler can be found for example here:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\csc.exe
or
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\csc.exe
The 64 bit versions of those you get in the mirrored folders "Framework64" instead of "Framework"..
Normally you would like to download the whole .NET SDK (developer pack) additionally, but for a single homework, csc.exe might be enough.
Here is the developer pack for .NET 6.2 framework (Visual Studio uses that as kind of a kernel too).
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53321
How can I deploy my Win32 application as an EXE application so that others (who don't have VC++ installed) can use it?
I am using VC++ 2010 on Windows 7.
If you switch to "Release" mode when you compile your finished program (rather than "Debug", which you use for debugging it during development), you should get an executable that will run on a computer without Visual Studio installed.
However, that executable will still require the appropriate version of the C runtime library to be installed. For example, if you developed it in Visual C++ 2010, you will need version 10 of the CRT installed. This is a freely redistributable library, downloadable here.
So, you have several options for deployment:
Manual Deployment
Give people the bare executable file, and include the installer for the redistributable in another folder on the installation media. If they copy the executable to disk and cannot run it because they get an error message, they should install the CRT libraries from the included redistributable installer. Then the executable will run just fine.
This works great if you have relatively a computer-savvy audience, or you're deploying to a fixed range of machines (like across a school or corporation). But it doesn't work so well for general deployment to customers.
In fact, you don't even need the installer. You can just place the CRT DLLs in the same folder as your executable and it will run just fine. This is how I test apps I'm developing on clean VMs. It works like a charm. There's no need to run the CRT installer at all. You'll find these required libraries as part of your Visual Studio installation:
<Program Files folder>\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\redist\x86
Automated Deployment
Create a setup program that automatically installs your application along with any dependencies it requires, including the CRT redistributable. This is what you see most commercial applications doing. I recommend it for anything but the most trivial of apps.
Full versions of Visual Studio 2010 (i.e., not Express versions) can create a Setup Project that you can customize as needed to work as an installer for your application. But this is no longer the recommended way to create an installer, and this functionality has been removed from the latest version of Visual Studio, 2012.
So I recommend using something else, even if you have an older version of VS where the Setup Project is available. No point in wasting time creating something you'll just have to update later. My personal favorite choices for creating setup programs are WiX and Inno Setup. Both are free, and extensive documentation is available online.
Creating simple setups that don't have to do very much is really quite straightforward—this is likely the case for you, as all you need to do is install the CRT redistributable if it is not already there. I'd be willing to bet money you can find a walkthrough or example online for how to do this in either WiX or Inno Setup.
If you need to do more complicated stuff, both of these setup packages support it. They are extensively customizable and very powerful, it just takes more work to get it all going.
Static Linking
If you absolutely need to be able to distribute a bare executable that is guaranteed to simply work when double-clicked, you will need to switch your project to statically link in the required runtime libraries. This means that all of the CRT code is actually embedded by the linker directly into your executable, and means that you don't have to redistribute the CRT libraries separately.
The disadvantage of this approach is that the only way to benefit from improvements, bug fixes, and security patches released for the CRT is to recompile and redistribute your application. If you dynamically link (the default), your app will automatically benefit from enhancements to the installed version of the CRT libraries. Microsoft strongly recommends against static linking.
To switch between these modes in Visual Studio, follow these steps:
Right-click on your project in the Solution Explorer and select "Properties".
Ensure that the "Release" configuration is selected in the drop-down box at the top of the dialog.
Expand the "C/C++" item in the TreeView, and select "Code Generation".
Change the setting of the "Runtime Library" option to "Multi-threaded (/MT)".
A further description on what these cryptic compiler switches mean and which ones you should use when is given in my answer here.
Final Note: The "Debug" versions of the CRT libraries are not redistributable, but that doesn't matter because you should always distribute the "Release" build of your app anyway, never the "Debug" build.
In general, the odds are pretty good your EXE file will run on any version of Windows you built it on or higher.
All bets off, for example, if you built using Visual Studio 2012 Professional on Windows 7, and you try to run it on Windows 95. But otherwise, you're probably safe :)
The best way to test if you have any dependencies is to install and run on a "clean machine".
The best way to get (and reuse) a "clean machine" is with a VM.
I recommend VMWare. But Virtual Box and Windows Virtual PC are also viable choices.
As far as an installer, I'd strongly encourage you to look at InnoSetup
I hope that helps!
Make sure you build in release mode. As Floris Velleman said, you're using unneeded libraries for standalone executable.
For more information, you can check Compiler Options (MSDN).
I created an installer with Visual Studio 2010 Version 10.0.40.219.1 SP1 Rel. My application is built/compiled for x86 and requires VC++ runtime libraries. Thus, the setup project is configured with VC++ runtime libraries as a prerequisite.
Every time I run the installer I get the popup "The following components will be installed on your machine." "Visual C++ 2010 Runtime Libraries (x86)". The first time it gets installed asa expected. The second and subsequent times it asks me whether to repair or remove VC++ 2010.
This popup should only be displayed once, the first time it is discovered that VC++ redistributable is not installed.
Has anyone seen this? Anyone know how I can fix this?
Solution:
The answer I accepted gave me what I needed to resolve the issue. Here are the details on what I did to fix this, which was very simple in fact. I edited the file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\vcredist_x86\product.xml
In this file you will find the following:
<InstallChecks>
<MsiProductCheck Property="VCRedistInstalled" Product="{6EE91C1A-A2E7-38CD-AEBB-3B900A4D8868}"/>
</InstallChecks>
The above contains the incorrect product code. Replace the above with the correct product code for the Visual C++ 2010 SP1 redistributable as follows:
<InstallChecks>
<MsiProductCheck Property="VCRedistInstalled" Product="{F0C3E5D1-1ADE-321E-8167-68EF0DE699A5}"/>
</InstallChecks>
The link here shows the correct product codes for the various VC++ 2010 Redistributables.
This happens because the prerequisite detection criteria is incorrect.
A solution is to create your own custom prerequisite with a correct criteria. Perhaps this article will help:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2010/05/05/10008146.aspx
Visual Studio setup projects do not support this. But it can be done by manually generating the required manifests.
You can find the manifests structure here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229223(VS.80).aspx
These manifests can be generated automatically with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator tool.
After generating the package manifests, you can add all these files (including the package) in a separate folder in the Visual Studio prerequisites folder, for example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\
You can then select the prerequisite in your setup project properties page.
weWithin our development environment we have VS2010 installed on my computer along with Expresison blend and silverlight4 tools. We have a separate build box where we compile and build the entire project. When running through the precompile I am receiving errors that references to the expression blend namespaces cannot be found. I assume this is due to the fact that expresison blend is not installed on the build box.
What is the best practice to prevent this from happening in the future? One solution presented was to just install expression blend on the build box but to me that seems unnecessary.
I have also thought of creating a lib direcotry within my project/solutions files and then add all assemblies there. Then within the references directory add them, but point to the lib directory within the project. I haven't done this only becuase if feels as if it is somewhat of a hack as I am basically creating duplicate dll's so there is no versioning or control over when a dll becomes updated etc that could potentially lead to problems down the road.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
After a little more research I found that microsoft offers two SDK's that you can install on the build-box and not be required to install Expression blend.
They are:
Microsoft Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=40EF0F31-CB95-426D-9CE0-00DCFABF3DF5&displaylang=en
Microsoft® Silverlight™ 4 SDK
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=55B44DA3-E5DE-4D2A-8EAF-1155CA6B3207&displaylang=en
Depending upon your output desktop app vs. silverlight you have the ability to install the expression libraries which will allow your solution to successfully compile.
I did refrain from the creation of the lib directory you loose all ability to version the assemblies in any sane manner.
Microsoft provides a redistributable installer for those Blend assemblies as part of Blend SDK. Install it and you will not need Blend itself to build the solution.