Chapter 24. Deploying Your Application

Deploying an application can be a complicated process, especially when dealing with large, complex applications. A wealth of knowledge is required on nearly every aspect of a development. A large software installation for Windows requires knowledge ranging from Registry settings, MIME types, and configuration files to database creation and manipulation. Companies tend to rely on dedicated deployment software for these large installations, together with key people who understand the processes involved. However, Visual Studio 2008 does provide some basic deployment functionality, which is tremendously helpful for the standard developer and smaller installations.

Under the Visual Studio 2008 banner, you can create many different types of applications, from desktop to web applications and services. All of these have varying degrees of complexity or peculiarities when it comes to installation time.

Since this is a beginner's guide, this chapter will not go into depth on specifics regarding the deployment of the different applications; rather, it provides an overview of deployment.

In this chapter, you will:

  • Learn concepts and terminology

  • Deploy a ClickOnce Application with Visual Studio 2008

  • Create a setup program with Visual Studio 2008

  • Edit the installer user interface

What Is Deployment?

Deployment is the activity of delivering copies of an application to other machines so that the application runs in the new environment. It is the larger, architectural ...

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