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I have a c# winform application that may well be deployed too 2.5k machines. What is the best way to deploy such an application (avoiding installing by hand on each machine)

Thanks,

ayd

aydjay
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    dupe ? http://serverfault.com/questions/273829/how-would-you-remotely-install-software-on-multiple-windows-xp-machines – user9517 Apr 08 '13 at 13:28
  • @Iain I'd VTC as dupe for a better remote deploy question, if there is one. The example question is specific to Google Talk Plugin, which is otherwise problematic beyond the available deployment tools. – jscott Apr 10 '13 at 00:43
  • @jscott: The answers to that question (as updated by the comments) are pretty much exactly the same as yours. Your answer didn't exist when I posted the link, and as I'm not a windows admin I wasn't sure if it was still correct hence the reason why I didn't dupe close it straight off. – user9517 Apr 10 '13 at 06:11

1 Answers1

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Assuming you're using Visual Studio, just create an MSI as part of your build -- See Greg's comment below about WiX in VS2012. MSI is the de facto install file format for Windows.

Once you've an MSI your options for install are pretty open. Depending on your environment and your application's requirements any or all of the following might work:

  1. Group Policy Software Installation
  2. Startup scripts
  3. Logon scripts
  4. Configuration Management Agent (SCCM, Altiris, etc)
  5. Remote command line (psexec, WinRs, etc)
Community
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jscott
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    Probably should be a WIX installer project. Microsoft removed the Setup project template starting with VS 2012. https://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckh/archive/2011/03/17/visual-studio-setup-projects-vdproj-will-not-ship-with-future-versions-of-vs.aspx – Greg Askew Apr 08 '13 at 13:34
  • @GregAskew Thanks, updated. I'm not much of a developer and haven't left VS2010 yet :) – jscott Apr 08 '13 at 13:37